impelled the smoke from the volcano into
the interior of the country, yet they nevertheless
were accompanied by a clear air and
fine weather. The cause of so remarkable
a phaenomenon has been supposed to be a
volcanic eruption arising from out of the sea,
to the northward of Iceland, or, possibly,
from the eastern bay of Greenland; since
it has been observed, that the thickest darkness
has uniformly been experienced, and
the greatest quantity of ashes fallen, during
the prevalence of northerly winds. How
far this conjecture may or may not be well
founded, I will not presume to say; for,
although we see that some notice has been
taken in the Berlin papers *, printed at
Copenhagen, of a fire said to have arisen
out of the sea, between Iceland and Greenland,
yet that circumstance must for the
present be reckoned among those which require
farther confirmation. Nevertheless, I
must acknowledge that it is not altogether
destitute of probability; for, if the smoke
which was „spread over the country with
northerly winds did not originate in a place
* For the year 1783, in No. 96, and others.
burning in that direction, it will not be
easy to conceive whence it could proceed,
unless it may be supposed that the columns
before mentioned, as abundant in the district
of Skaptefield, had, by southerly
winds, been carried far away to the north,
and were now driven back by the winds
blowing from that quarter. When the winter
of 1783 came on, the hazy weather was
less perceptible, yet it was still observable
for three days in November, and again once
in December; on the 13th, the 29th, 30th,
and 31st of January, 1784; then twice in
February; as also in March and April, and
in June, after which it prevailed almost
daily in July, whilst I remained in the vicinity
of the fire. Indeed, it could not well
be otherwise, but that as soon as the thick
vapors, arising from the districts filled by
the lava, were dispersed by the wipds, they
must necessarily cause fogs and hazy weather
in those places to which they were
driven. After the prevalence of so thick
an atmosphere as has been just described,
it was remarked, at several periods during
the following winter of 1784, that the surface
of the snow was covered with very fine