about the lava, as well as the depth and
nature of this latter beneath the surface of
the ground, and they farther confirmed me
in the opinion which I have stated above,
that the volcano was to be considered as
arising from a partial eruption, and not
from any internal and universal ignition of
the earth.
H e ig h t o f th e The height, to which the
heaps of lava rise in the level
country, is in some parts very considerable
; particularly at Skalarfiall, where they
have reached up to the rocks that project
from the south side of the mountain: yet,
nevertheless, were we to calculate its extreme
height on the plains at an hundred feet (and
even this is not quite a fourth part of what
has been stated *), I am still persuaded we
should greatly exceed the reality.
§ XXIX.
It has been already noticed in its proper
place, that, after the first breaking out of
¿566 Holms s Account of ths Fits3 p. 19. wlierc
the height of the lava is estimated at seventy fathoms,
or four hundred and twenty feet.
State o f th e weather the fire, a great quantity of
alter the ls£ of Ju n e , j ' , ' 1 f
1 783. ashes, sand,, and sulphureous
dust was thrown over the adjacent districts,
particularly those of Si den and Fliotshyerfet.
^fhe long continuance of westerly winds,
too, drove the sand-bank away from Skaptar-
tuiigen to the places just named; and the
vast quantity of burning sand falling around
scorched up all the grass in the fields about
Fliotshverfet to such a degree, that there
were no means of support for the cattle,
and the inhabitants fled from all the farms in
this district, excepting the most easterly
one, called Nupstad, which, together with
the neighboring farm of Raudaberg, remained
uninjured by the hot ashes. It is an
undoubted certainty, that, if Providence
should be pleased to grant better seasons
to Iceland than the present, not only the
parsonage of Kalfafell, with the cottage of
Kalfafellskot, appertaining to it, but also
the farm-houses of Nupar, Mariubacki, and
Hvoll, will, in a very few years, be restored to
their former condition; especially as the lava
itself has not reached them. We may then
reckon the number of farm-houses damaged
at twenty-five, instead of twenty-nine (see
VOL II. P