which every where, throughout the whole
extent of the lava, become evaporated into
steam. Such clouds of steam were more
particularly abundant in rainy seasons,
which makes it sufficiently clear that they
owed their origin to water alone. When
Mr. Levetzen and myself travelled from
the farm-house of Skaptardal to the burnt
farm of Skal, and thence up the mountains,
on the 26th of July, we were enveloped in
so thick a fog that we could hardly see for
six yards before us. The fog had a disagreeable
smell, and at length turned into a
heavy fall of rain. But when we returned
to Skal we were informed that this scent, as
well as the fog itself, was to be found only on
the hills, and that there had been, at the
same time, fine and clear weather in the
valley, together with a southerly wind,
which had finally dispefsed the rising vapors,
carrying them towards the rocks in
the north, and had at length enveloped the
low grounds in a thick fog and heavy rain,
similar to what we had previously experienced
in the mountains. These circumstances
tend still farther to confirm my
conjecture that the smoke ascending from
the lava is nothing more than water, converted
into vapor by extreme heat, and
consequently that it can by no means be
regarded as a proof that fire still exists in
an active state among the lava.
§ XXVII.
I now proceed to inquire into the state
of the lava itself, and into the different
kinds of this substance which have occurred
O f th e nature o f to me* In doing this 1 shali
th e lava. first notice the color, which,
whether at greater or less distances from
the place of eruption, was every where of
a greyish ash, intermixed with black: the
latter more particularly predominating.
In many places, where the lava presented
an even surface, it had cooled in the same
form in which it had flowed, and it was
externally either deep red or violet, though
the interior more frequently partook of a
light-blue tint.
Wherever the lava had, from the circumstance
of various streams succeeding each
other, formed itself into eminences, the
heated vapors naturally forced their way
through the upper and hardened crust,