under the ruins of the habitations: but
above all it is to be lamented that this
misfortune should take place just at the
season of hay-making. The want of horses,
too, is a circumstance very distressing to the
country in general, and to the places destroyed
by the earthquakes in particular,
since, as observed above, without the assistance
of these animals, the inhabitants can
neither procure the timber necessary for
building, nor any supply of provisions from
the sea coast. It is therefore much to be
feared that several of the farm-houses that
are damaged must, for the present, remain
uninhabited; especially as the hay has been
almost entirely destroyed by this sudden
misfortune, and by the long continuance
of rainy weather following almost immediately
upon it.
A consequence of these severe earthquakes
has been, that the face of the country appears
to be heaved up in the form of billows, and
during the continuance of the shock it looked
as if covered with a dark cloud of dust.
All waters, as well the flowing as the stagnant
ones, were sensiblwy disturbed and became
white as milk ; but the rivers themselves
resembled the most furious mill-
streams. Many Hverar, or boiling-springs,
and other brooks and pools were dried up,
though some of these after a while again
made their appearance in fresh places. The
hot-springs about the Geyser, and àbove all
the Geyser itself spouted out its torrents with
a fury never before witnessed, and the same
was also the case with the springs of this
kind about Skalholt. It is very remarkable
that, in the very place where I bored into
the ground between these spots last year,
there has sprung up, according to Bishop
Finsen’s account, dated the 14th of AuOgust
following, a fresh fountain of boiling water.
We are also informed that the pastures in
the district of Aarnes had, by these shocks
in the ground, suffered such convulsions,
that all the moss growing in damp places
was forced out of the soil, and lay so thick
upon the grass that scarcely any more hav
could be cut ; whilst in hard and dry
places great cracks and apertures, nay, in
some, spots, even deep holes were formed in
the earth.
vol. 11. s