of Edinburgh , Session 1875-76. 
49 
with a stratum a quarter of an ell thick.* The darkness during the 
dust showers prevented the Jokulsdaelingar (people of Jokulsdal) 
reading by day, and many of them left their farms and drove their 
cattle to grass on the Vopnafjorftr. This outbreak is supposed to 
have come not solely from the Dyngjufjoll, which, since April 5, 
emitted only heavy smoke, but from several other places in the 
northern, the north-eastern, and the north-western faces of the 
Vatnajokull. In addition to this movement, which may be called 
the “ Dyngjufjoll eruption,” and which is frequently referred to 
in the local and in our home papers, Dr Jnlius places another 
vent, hitherto unnumbered, about seven miles to the S.S.W. 
of HerbubreiS, the “ broad-shouldered ” and perpendicular-sided 
mountain of palagonite, which I had attempted to ascend in 1872. 
I am happy to say that Mr W. L. Watts also noted the projecting 
buttress from the south-west, which, descried too late, appeared to 
me the only place for successful climbing. Here was the outbreak 
of May 29, 1875, and hence, according to my informant, the greater 
part of the ashes and pumice had been carried to the north-east. 
On the other hand, Mr W. L, Watts saw no erater south-west of 
Her<5ubrei<5, and would derive the pumice and ashes from Askja. 
The Medico placed a suplementary crater in the old lava-field on a 
meridian between HerbubrerSarfell and the BeykjahlfS-Jokulsa road. 
Thus we have five several vents: — A and B, north and south of the 
road (March 29); C, continuing the line southwards; D (May 29), 
near Herftubreift; and E, the Askja or southern Dyngjufjoll 
On July 29 the expedition received, at Husavik, a visit from Mr 
W. L. Watts, who was fresh from the conquest of the Vatnajokull, 
and he gave us the first intelligent account of the movement. He 
had found fresh ashes, but no pumice, on the snows of the Vatna- 
jokull, about the middle or in N. lat. 64° 25'. Kistufell was quiet; 
smoke or vapour issued intermittently from Kverkfjoll, which I 
saw in 1872 vomiting a glacier, and about SkjaldbreiS rose a large 
mound of old lava, but no new signs of action appeared. He walked 
over layers of pumice, extending a score of miles, from the Svarta 
* The Danish measures are:-- 
12 inches = 1 foot (= 12-356 English). 
24 thumblungar or 2 feet = 1 alen (ell). 
24,000 feet = 1 mile (=: 4£ English statute miles in round numbers). 
VOL. IX. 
G 
