HOT SPRINGS in ICELAND. 143 



afTemblage of Jokuh or ice-mountains, which occupy a confider- 

 able extent of the interior country. Their forms were moftly 

 conical ; and from their general refemblance to other mountains 

 in the ifland, from which ftreams of lava have been emitted, 

 I think it probable they were once volcanos. They are not fo 

 connecled as to form a continued range or chain of hills. Each 

 ftands infulated ; and therefore the fnows which have for ages 

 refted on their fides, are no where accumulated in valleys and 

 converted into lakes of ice and glaciers, as amidft the Alps of 

 Switzerland and Savoy. 



■ A view fo different from the general features of the coun- 

 try, imprefTed us with the moft agreeable fenfations. Hitherto 

 we could but compare one fcene of drearinefs with another ', 

 and although the view before us was deftitute of trees, yet the 

 verdure, and pleafant diftribution of hills and plain, in fome 

 meafure compenfated for this deficiency. 



I now return to the account of the fprings, which I have 

 already obferved break out in different places from the fides of 

 a hill, and. the fpace inclofed between its bafe and the windings 

 of a river. The foil through which they rife is a mixture of 

 crumbled materials, warned by degrees from the higher parts 

 of the hill. In fome places, thefe have been reduced into a 

 clay or earth ; in others, they ft ill remain loofe and broken 

 fragments of the rocks from whence they have fallen, or a 

 duft produced by their friction againft each other. Wherever 

 the ground is penetrated by the fleam of the fprings, thefe frag- 

 ments are foon decompofed, or changed into coloured clays. 

 In other places, the furface of the ground is covered with in- 

 cruftations depofited by the fprings, or with a luxuriant vege- 

 tation of grafs or dwarf bullies of willow and birch, and the 

 empetrum nigrum *, the berries of which were at this time ripe 



and in great abundance. 



Above 



* The crow berry. This is almoft the only fruit we met with in Iceland. Mr Wright 

 found a few ftrawbi rries. Neither goofcberries nor currants will come to perfection by 

 any management whatever. 



