VOLCANOES. 
425 
u and every vegetable it fell upon, by scorching 
u them up, and causing them to wither. At 
“ Ferroe there fell a considerable^ quantity of 
“ ashes, sand, pumice, and brimstone, which co- 
u vered the whole surface of the ground whenever 
“ the wind blew from Iceland ; and the distance 
“ between these two places is at least eighty miles. 
u Ships that were sailing between • Copenhagen 
cc and Norway were frequently covered vyith ashes 
“ and brimstone, which stuck to the sails, masts, 
“ and decks, besmearing them all over with a 
black and pitchy matter. Many parts of 
“ Holland # , Germany, and other countries in 
“ the north, observed a brimstone vapor in the 
* In a copy of HorrebovJs History of Iceland , now before 
me, is the following marginal note written by Mr. Sparrow 
of Worlingham-Hall, a gentleman to whom I am happy in 
thus having the opportunity of acknowledging the obligations 
I feel myself under for the ready access he has granted me to 
his valuable library, and especially for the use of some scarce 
works relative to Icelandic history.—An eruption of Hecla” 
(as it was for a long time supposed) “ broke out again in 
f f the spring of the year 1783. In the May of that year I was 
“ in Holland, where the sun appeared for a great length of 
“ time to be enveloped and obscured in a thick dry mist j 
“ the cause of which was not then known. About the end 
“ of the year two very large and luminous meteors astonished 
tc the world ; they took a south-westerly direction, and were 
“ seen, apparently at the same elevation and nearly $t the 
“ same point of time, in the eastern parts of England and 
“ the southern parts of Europe. They were remarked about 
