HRAUN, NEAR REIKEVIG. 
of Hraun , (pronounced Hruin ), or lava* about 
six miles to the south of Reikevig. The part of 
it, which I first came up to, was within one or 
two miles of Havnfiord, where its course has 
been stopped by the sea, after extending a length 
of twenty-five miles from the craters, which are 
supposed to have given birth to this wonderful 
current. In some parts of the way, there was a 
track which led us to the spot, but it was entirely 
lost when we came on a small morass, and in 
about an hour we reached the Hraun. At a 
little distance, this huge mass of lava has a most 
extraordinary appearance, its surface being every 
where as much broken and as uneven as that 
of a greatly agitated sea, and its boundaries very 
distinctly marked by the lighter color of the na¬ 
tural rock, or by the vegetation which this latter 
produces, whilst the lava itself is almost black. 
On leaving my horse, and proceeding on foot, 
with no little difficulty upon the Hraun , I was 
still more struck with the strange and desolate 
appearance that surrounded me. The Tatsroed 
of Iceland, who was present at the famous erup¬ 
tion of Skaptar-Jokul, informs me, that the tor¬ 
rents of lava, which ran with a smooth surface 
whilst in a heated and liquid state, in the act 
of cooling cracked and broke into innumerable 
pieces, many of which, of a monstrous size, were, 
by the expansive force of the air beneath, heaved 
from their bed, and remained by the side of the 
