TRAVELS IN ICELAND. 



135 



astonishing if the cold were not found much more severe in this 

 part than elsewhere. 



The masses of ice which come from Greenland to this coast, 

 as well as to that of the north, cause here the same revolutions 

 as occur in the more northern atmosphere: they chill the 

 air on their arrival to such a degree, that in summer snow falls 

 in abundance; while the frost is so severe that it destroys the 

 grass, and sometimes even the cattle. In the years 17 5o and 6, 

 we were witnesses to a similar occurrence winch destroyed all the 

 productions of the soil. It appears that these musses of ice, 

 came in ancient times to the eastern coast. The annals relate, 

 tiiat in 1320 they obstructed the passage to the north and east 

 shores, and occasioned a famine in the following year throughout 

 Iceland, 



The atmospheric phenomena, earthquakes, Sic. are so fre- 

 quent in this part of Iceland, that the inhabitants seldom regard 

 them, and still less speak of them, as new or extraordinary oc- 

 currences. The cause of such phenomena is undoubtedly the 

 vast number of icy and burning mountain^ which produce all 

 sorts of meteors. Thunder is rarely heard in the district of . 

 Mule, which is contained in this quarter of Iceland : and hence 

 the annals describe with much propriety as, an extraordinary 

 event, the misfortune that occurred in 1690; when a house was 

 destroyed, a woman wounded, and a cow killed, by lightning in 

 the Canton of Ostfiord. 



The inhabitants of this quarter of Iceland possess no pecu- 

 liar characteristic to distinguish them from those of the districts 

 already mentioned: though the latter look upon them as a distinct 

 people, in consequence of their living insulated, as it were, from 

 the other quarters ; so that, having little occasion to communicate 

 with their countrymen in general, they have a manner of behaving 

 and reasoning peculiar to themselves. They are mostly peaceable, 

 sentimental, and reserved; and though they do not differ essen- 

 tially from the other inhabitants, yet their dialect, costume, 

 mode of travelling, &c. are sufficient to make them appear to 

 people^ of other districts as a distinct race. 



OF STREAMS CHANGED INTO GREAT RIVERS. 

 The inhabitants assert that some streams have been extra- 

 ordinarily augmented by the eruptions of the volcano ; but as 

 those often change their beds, it is not easy to determine how 

 inuch they may have increased. With respect to rivers whose 

 increase is continual, we have two examples. The first is that of 

 Jukulsaa, on the sands of Solheime, which is called the Stink- 

 ing River: it was formerly a small stream; but received a vast 

 increase frQin the fermentation and the eruption of the glacier, 



