TRAVELS IN ICELAND. 



89 



PETRIFIED WOOD. 



In Iceland real petrifications are very seldom to be met with, 

 except where they are produced by subterraneous fires or hot 

 springs. There are, however, in the rocks near Bardestrand, 

 some vast strata of petrified ebony*. In this spot is an immense 

 cavern, which sinks two hundred fathoms into the mountain, 

 and in which a small river takes its course. The entrance of the 

 cavern is to the southward; and to the west it becomes very 

 steep: its height is one hundred and seventy-five feet; and that of 

 the mountain, which is composed of different strata of rock, is 

 seven hundred and fifty-four feet. These strata, with respect to 

 the substance which forms them, are in size and compactness 

 very regular, and are parallel with the shore: they are composed 

 of rocks amalgamated with ferruginous particles, and intersected 

 by light strata of brownish turf, as well as by hard clay mixed 

 with sand. The ebony wood (or, as it is called, surtarbrand, 

 from the name of the mountain which contains it) is easy to be 

 distinguished at a distance, on account of its black colour : it is 

 principally found to the left of the entrance of the cavern, above 

 the first four stratifications ; and from the best opinion we could 

 form, these were about one hundred and twenty-six feet long, 

 by two, three, or four in thickness. The uppermost stratum is 

 twenty-five feet above the level of the river, and consists of a 

 thick kind of wood, in which are many ferruginous particles ; the 

 second is better, having a finer grain; but the two inferior strata 

 surpass the others, as they are less stony, and not so much mixed 

 with heterogeneous substances. 



This singular wood appears again in a grotto in the Forstahl, 

 near Arnarfiord. We were induced to repair to this grotto, 

 from hearing that it contained a quantity of sea-coal; but 

 the substance taken for coal proves to be nothing else than the 

 Iceland ebony mixed with a kind of fat and black slate, which 

 is very compact. This mass may indeed be used as fuel, but 

 it partakes only in a small degree of the quality of the real coal 

 found in the surtarbrand. To the left, on a small eminence 

 composed of lightly-heaped rubbish, we observed some strata of 

 the same kind of ebony ; but they were very thin, and, as it were, 

 dispersed by chance. A circumstance however very remakable 

 was, that several pieces of wood, fragments of bones, branches 

 of trees, and particularly roots of petrified plants, were disco- 

 verable at intervals, which had preserved their shape, though we 

 observed that they were rather pressed or flattened ; but, on the 

 other hand, they had acquired a considerable degree of solidity, 



* Lignum succo minerali msalitum condensatumque ; an ebonum fo$$ih 

 Xdandiam, Worm, Mus> lib, I. c^tlj, 

 OLAFSEN.J M 



