396 
APPENDIX. C. 
without intermission, from the 15th of April till 
the 7th of September. Flames, but unattended 
with lava, appeared in 1771 and 177 since 
which period to the latter end of the present 
year, 1810, neither fire nor smoke has been per¬ 
ceived. 
Having already, in my journal (page 159), stated 
the circumstances which prevented me from reach¬ 
ing Hecla, it is necessarily out of my power to 
give an account of the state of the mountain from 
my own actual observation; but, if I may be 
allowed to judge from the information I received 
in the neighborhood, I had less reason than might 
be imagined to regret my disappointment; the 
covering of snow, that in many seasons entirely 
envelops the summit, having lain particularly 
thick during the summer of 1809, and so com¬ 
pletely concealed every thing that might be looked 
upon as remarkable, that the prosecution of my 
journey would but have added to my fatigue 
without a chance of the success I wished for. 
Sir Joseph Banks, however, and his party, were 
more fortunate, and an account of their expedition 
has been published by Von Troil, whose remarks 
on Hecla are so familiar to the English reader, 
that the mountain may be considered as well 
known. At the same time, as it is one of those 
