The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

ICELAND. 31In recent years there have been frequent eruptions on the north side of theYatna-Jokull, the most violent of which occurred on March 29th, 1875, when thesnow-fields on the east side of the island were covered by a layer of at least392,000,000 cubic yards of pumice reduced to impalpable dust. Towards the eastthe heavens became almost pitch dark at noon, and a strong westerly gale waftedthe ashes across to the Norwegian snows, and even to the neighbourhood ofStockholm, 1,180 miles from the centre of activity, the greatest distance on record.Iceland abounds no less in submarine than it does in sub-glacial volcanoes.About a month before the eruption of 1783, one of these, some 60 miles southwestof Reykjanes, discharged such a quantity of pumice that the surface was13. Nyue and Eeykjakes.Scale 1 : 060,000.WofGr.Under 60 Fathoms. GO to 120 Fathoms. Over 120 Fathoms.10 Miles.covered for a distance of 150 miles, and ships were impeded in their course. Atriple-crested mountain, Nyoe, or " New Isle," rose from the waters, but beingcomposed of ashes and loose lavas, it soon became disintegrated, and graduallydisappeared, as did afterwards the Sabrina Islands, near the Azores, and Ferdinandea,in the Sicilian seas. Breidi-FjorSr Bay, on the north-west coast, seemsalso to enclose a volcanic area, especially about Flatey ("Flat Island"), wherehot springs bubble up from the deep. One of these covers the surrounding shinglewith incrustations, and others are utilised by sailors and fishermen at low water.But the lava streams discharged during the ten centuries of the historic periodare of little account when compared with the vast beds, or hrauns, which, with thetufas, constitute so large a portion of the Icelandic rocks. Thus for a distance of