WATERS from ICELAND. 121 



of their being fwelled and extended by the water penetrating 

 into them ; and by a longer action of the water, there is no 

 doubt that they, or fbme part of them, are completely dif- 

 folved. 



Those who may have objections againft admitting, that a 

 boiling heat, and great length of time, are fufficient aids to 

 enable water to difTolve a compound of the filiceous earth with 

 fuch a fmall proportion of alkali, may imagine this earth to 

 have been at nrft combined with a larger proportion of alkali 

 than that we now find combined with it, and that after it was 

 difTolved in the water, a part of this alkali was neutralized by 

 acid vapours, or acid fubftances, which the water found in its 

 way towards the furface. 



On the whole, however, the fuppofition which appears to me 

 the mofl probable is, that common fait and Glauber's fait, con- 

 veyed by fea- water, or contained in foflils formed from fea- 

 plants, have been applied, under the influence of a violent heat, 

 to fome of the numerous earthy and ftony ftrata which contain 

 mixtures of filiceous and argillaceous earth ; that thofe falts 

 have been in part decompounded, by the attraction of thefe 

 earths for the alkali of the neutral fait, part of the acid has 

 been difTipated, or changed into fulphur and fulphureous gas, 

 by the action on it at the fame time of inflammable matter, 

 which we know to be prefent in many of the ftrata ; and that 

 the compound of alkali and earthy matter has afterwards been 

 long expofed, and continues expofed, to the action of the hot 

 water. By fuch a fuppofition, we can imagine how the feveral 

 ingredients of thefe hot fprings became difTolved in them ; and 

 this fuppofition appears the more probable, when we attend to 

 the accurate obfervations of Mr Stanley, on the nature of the 

 country, and flate of the foil, in which thefe two hot fprings are 

 found. The rocks and mountains, which are at a fmall di- 

 ftance, or in the immediate vicinity of each of them, are formed 

 chiefly of different kinds of lava. The lower country and foil 



Vol. III. Q^ at 



