050 
VOLCANOES IN ICELAND. 
of which, the chief priest, with the most violent gestures of grief, deli- 
vered a short sermon, in which he told them the eruption was a 
judgment upon their sins, and recommended them to mend their lives, 
and pray to all the saints to intercede for them. Every pause of 
this discourse was filled with a general burst of tears, beating of 
breasts, tearing of hair, and flogging of backs. I was never more 
aft'ected by any scene of public distress. 
“ What mortal can dare to think he breathes a single moment w ith- ' 
out divine assistance ? How feeble, how insignificant does he feel, 
who stands within two hundred yards of these furious volcanoes. 
What must be the pangs of his heart, who beholds his earthly pro- 
perty, his native fields, in a few hours overwhelmed. Transitoi-y, 
conj pared with this, are ail the other scourges of the earth. The 
fertility swept away by floods and tempests, by war and pestilence, is 
shortly succeeded by smiling plenty. The fields of Austerlitz and 
Jena already revive from their late desolatioiL Even Spain may, 
perhaps, smile ere long; but many successive generations, with hope- 
less sighs, must view the black and barren rocks which have buried 
the native lands of their unhappy forefathers.’^ 
Volcanoes and Eruptions in Iceland. 
Iceland is noted for its volcanoes, which seem to be more furious 
than any others yet discovered. Indeed, from the latest accounts, it 
would seem that this miserable country was one continued volcano. 
Mount Hecla has been supposed to be the only burning mountain, or 
at least the principal one, in the island. It has indeed been more 
taken notice of than many others of as great extent, partly from its 
having had more frequent eruptions than any other, and partly from 
its situation, which exposes it to the sight of ships sailing to Green- 
land and North America. But in a list of eruptions published in the 
Appendix to Pennant’s Arctic Zoology, it appears that out of fifty-one 
remarkable ones, only one-third have proceeded from Hecla, the other 
mountains being no less active in the work of destruction than this. 
These eruptions take place in the mountains covered with ice, which the 
inhabitants call Jokuls. Some of thesOj as appears from a large map 
of Frederick V. (1734,) have been swallowed up. The great lakes in 
this country have been occasioned by the sinking of such mountains, as 
similar instances are seen in other places. The great Icelandic lake, 
called Myratu, seems to have been one. Its bottom is entirely formed 
of lava, divided by deep cracks, which shelter, during winter, a great 
quantity of trouts. It is now only thirty feet deep, but originally was 
much deeper, having been nearly filled up in 17*28 by an eruption 
of the great mountain Krafle ; the fiery stream took its course to- 
wards Myratu, and ran into it with a horrid noise, which continued 
till 1730. 
“ The mountains of Iceland,” says Mr. Pennant, are of two kinds, 
primitive and posterior. The former consist of strata usually regular, 
but sometimes confused. They are formed of different sorts of stone, 
without the least appearance of fire. Some are edmposed of sand 
and free-stone, petrosilex or chirt, slaty or fissile stone, and various 
kinds of earth or bole, and steatitea, dififerent sorts of breccia or con- 
