INTRODUCTION. 
Ivii 
and only once to 6o°. Mr. Savigniac, how¬ 
ever^ assured me, that at Reikevig one day the 
thermometer, exposed to the sun, rose to 100°. 
In the beginning of August there were severe 
frosts, and much snow fell in the vallies and 
plains, even in the most temperate parts of 
the island. In common seasons * the changes 
that take place in the atmosphere in the course 
of the twenty-four hours are very extraordinary; 
since it often happens that after a night of 
hard frost the thermometer will in the day rise 
to 7 °°« During the winter of the year 1348 , 
the annals of the country relate that the sea 
was frozen all round the coasts, and that a 
person might ride on horseback upon the ice 
from one cape to another across all the gulplis 
and bays in the island. In February, 1755 , the 
thermometer in the southern quarter of the coun¬ 
try, fell to 7 °. In 1754 , on January 13 th, it was 
at 9 0 ; on February 13 th, 8°; on the 14 th of 
March 11°; on December 6th, 11^° ; and on the 
12th of the following February, 12°; but in the 
month of May, in the same year, the frosts 
were so severe that in one night’s time water in 
the neighbourhood of the sea was frozen an inch 
and half in thickness. Ice-islands in the years 
l 6 l 5 , 1639^ 1683 , and 1695 came round to the 
* Voyage en Islande, 
