402 
APPENDIX. C. 
eruptions, as has been sufficient to load a num» 
ber of horses. On the night of the 19th of June.* 
they at length approached the summit, and found 
themselves on the edge of the crater, in a place 
covered with ice and snow; yet not of such a 
nature as that of the glaciers, since it generally 
melts away in the summer months, excepting 
only what lies in the hollows and clefts; for 
Hecla is to be classed among the Icelandic moun¬ 
tains of inferior height, rising to no greater eleva¬ 
tion than five thousand feet above the level of the 
sea. What rendered their walk more uncomfort¬ 
able was that a flight of snow had recently fallen, 
the depth of which was not less than a foot and 
half. Through this they had a long and toilsome 
passage, before they at last found themselves ar¬ 
rived at the object of their journey, the summit 
which, resembling gunpowder, was lately shown me by the 
Countess of Gosford, picked up during the last eruption of 
the same mountain (March, 1809), in the very streets of 
Messina, fifty miles distant in a straight line, where it fell in 
such quantities that several cart-loads might have been col¬ 
lected.—The most extraordinary proof of the connection be¬ 
tween volcanoes and subterraneous waters seems to be afforded 
by Humboldt, who, in the zoological part of his travels, 
Speaks of the volcanoes of Quito casting out innumerable 
quantities of a species of fish that is found in the streams 
that run into the sides of the mountains. 
2 
