654 
VOLCANOES' IN ICELAND. 
of August, after wbicli the fiery lake no longer spread itself, though 
it continued to burn ; and when any part of the surface acquired a 
crust by cooling, it was quickly broken by the fire below, and thus 
tumbling down among the melted substances, was tossed about with 
prodigious noise ; and in many parts of its surface, small spouts, or 
at least ebullitions, were formed, which continued for some length of 
time. 
In other directions this dreadful inund.ation proved no less destruc- 
tive. Having run through the narrow part of the channel of Skapta 
as early as the twelfth of June, h stretched out towards the west and 
south-west, overflowing all the flat country ; its edge being no less, 
than seventy fathoms high at the time it got out of the channel of 
the river. Continuing its destructive course, it overflowed a number 
of villages, running in every direction where it could find a vent. In 
one place it came to a great cataract in the Skapta, about fourteen 
fathoms high, over which it was precipitated wdth tremendous noise, and 
thrown in great quantities to a very considerable distance. In an- 
other place it stopped up the channel of a large river, filled a great 
valley, and destroyed two villages by approaching only within one 
hundred fathoms of them. Others were overflowed by inundations 
of water proceeding from the river, which had been obstructed in 
their course, until at last all the passages on the south east and west 
being stopped, and the spouts still sending up incredible quantities of 
fresh lava, it burst out to the north and north-east, spreading over a 
tract of land forty-eight miles long and thirty-six broad. Here it 
dried up the rivers Tuna and Abasyrdi ; but even this vast effusion 
being insufficient to exhaust the subterraneous liquid fire, a new branch 
took its course for about eight miles down the channel of the Ilwer- 
sisfliot, when, coming again to an open country, it formed what Dr. 
Van Troil calls a small lake of fire, about twelve miles long and 
six broad. At last, however, this branch also stopped on the 
sixteenth of August, the fiery fountains ceased to pour forth new 
supplies, and this most astonishing eruption came to a period. 
The whole extent of ground covered by this dreadful inundation 
was computed at ninety miles long and forty-tw'o broad, the depth 
of the lava being from sixteen to twenty fathoms. Twelve rivers w'ere 
dried up, twenty or twenty-one villages were destroyed, and tw'o hun- 
dred and twenty-four people lost their lives. But this is only the 
extenron the south-east and w'est: for that towards the north, being 
thinly inhabited land, where nobody cared to venture, was not exactly 
known. Some hills were covered by this lava, others were melted 
down by its heat, so that the whole had the appearance of a sea of 
red-hot melted metal. After this eruption, two new islands were 
thrown up from the bottom of the sea. One, about three miles in 
circumference and about one in height, made its appearance in 1784, 
where there were formerly one hundred fathoms of water ; it w'as 
about one hundred miles south-west of Iceland, and forty eight from 
a cluster of small islands called Gieofulga : it continued for some 
time to burn with great violence, sending forth prodigious quantities of 
pumice-stones, sand, &c. like other volcanoes. The other lay to the 
north-west, between Iceland and Greenland ; it burnt day and night 
