i 2 8 An AC COU NT of 



I muft, in a great meafure, repeat 'what he has faid. It may- 

 be fatisfaclory, however, to you to have his relations corro- 

 borated j and fome further details, with an account of the 

 changes which, in a few inftances, have taken place fince he 

 vifited thefe particular fprings in 1772, may contribute to ex- 

 plain their hiftory, and the caufe of their very lingular appear- 

 ances. 



You received two kinds of water, one from a fpring near a 

 farm called Rykum, and the other from the fountain known 

 by the name of the Geyzer, the mofl remarkable in the ifland. 

 It rifes near the farm of Haukadal, about forty miles from 

 Rykum. They are both fituated in the S. W. divifion of the 

 ifland. 



I shall begin with a defcription of the country and the 

 fprings near Rykum, and of the firft view we had of them in 

 our way from Rykavick to Mount Hecla. Rykum is fituated 

 in a valley, which, on account of its fertility, and the ftrong 

 contraft it made with the dreary fcenes we had palled fince our 

 laft flation, appeared to us with great advantage while we ap- 

 proached it. We had traverfed a country, feven or eight 

 miles in breadth, entirely overfpread with lava, and other vol- 

 canic matter. It was furrounded with hills, not fufficiently 

 high to be majeftic, and too rugged and too barren to be pleafing. 

 We were told by our guides, that, on a clear day, the fummits 

 of Hecla might be feen above thofe which were immediately 

 before us ; but heavy and lowering clouds, which threatened 

 us inceffantly with a ftorm, concealed every diftant object from 

 our fight. 



We faw many diftricls in Iceland covered with lava ; but I 

 do not recollect one fo uncouth and defolate as this. No vege- 

 tation was to be feen but that of a few ftunted bufhes of willow 

 and birch, growing between the crevices and hollows of the 

 lava, into which the wind had drifted fufficient foil for them to 

 take root. We could difcover no mount or crater from whence 



we 



