which was consequently broken, and had
fallen down in fragments of various shapes
and sizes. In places where the lava was
smooth and even, it was from the like circumstance
full of cracks and rents, and in
such places, but principally in the deep
hollows, it was strewed on the surface
with a fine white kind of dust, somewhat
resembling salt, of which, with infinite
pains, I was able to collect a small quantity.
In a few spots, also, where the surface of
the lava was level, might be seen yellow
veins of sulphur among the cracks. Some
of this I endeavored to procure with a
pick-axe, by which means I broke into a
number of concealed vacancies, that exhibited
a mixture of various colors; while
from their roof or upper part hung a great
quantity of small projecting points, either
of a sulphureous yellow or a dark red color.
At the extremity of these processes, were
seen a quantity of red drops, which in drying
had become indurated, but which, notwithstanding
their small size, would bear
a smart blow with a hammer without being
broken. The bases of the cavities were
chiefly yellow and green, though sometimes
a reddish color was intermixed with them.
In the bottom of one, I met with a beautiful
kind of lava, remarkable for being most
elegantly variegated with red, green, and
yellow. Lava of the common sort, such
as is every where to be found, has always
a blackish hue within, with an exterior of
a bluish cast, or sometimes with a mixture of
red and violet color. Another species, somewhat
different from the two just described,
was found near Blaeng, at a little distance
from the lava-stream. A fourth kind of
rock also is thrown out by the volcano, and
carried across the Fliotshverfet. This appears
to be a black slate, shining wuthin like
pit coal: its exterior is marked with numerous
white dots. With regard to pumice-
stone, I could find no large pieces of it.
Those which I met with were about the
size of a hazel-nut, of a brown color, fine
in quality, its weight light, and its nature,
as far as I could judge, exactly the same
as that used in the arts. Under the five
kinds of mineral substances here mentioned,
which have been thrown up by the volcano,
all others which have come under my inspection
are to be classed, as they cannot