CALAMITY. 
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into the plain its depth never exceeded one hundred 
feet. The eruption of sand, ashes, pumice, and lava, 
continued till the end of August, when the Plutonic 
drama concluded with a violent earthquake. 
For a whole year a canopy of cinder-laden cloud 
hung over the island. Sand and ashes irretrievably 
overwhelmed thousands of acres of fertile pasturage. 
The Faroe islands, the Shetlands, and the Orkneys, 
were deluged with volcanic dust, which perceptibly 
contaminated even the pure skies of England and 
Holland. Mephitic vapours tainted the atmosphere of 
the entire island;—even the grass, which no cinder rain 
had stifled, completely withered up ;—the fish perished in 
the poisoned sea. A murrain broke out among the 
cattle, and a disease resembling scurvy attacked the 
inhabitants themselves. Stephenson has calculated that 
9,000 men, 28,000 horses, 11,000 cattle, 190,000 sheep, 
died from the effects of this one eruption. The most 
moderate calculation puts the number of human deaths 
at upwards of 1,300; and of cattle, &c. at about 
156,000. 
The whole of this century had proved most fatal 
to the unfortunate people of Iceland. At its commence- 
i 
