of melted stone. In this spot, which appears
to be the place alluded to by Von Troil, where
he speaks of the hill as being surrounded with
lofty glazed walls, and filled with high glazed
cliffs not to be compared to any thing he
ever saw before, our travellers found it necessary
to leave their horses; and their guide,
under the pretence that he was suddenly
attacked with a head-ache, excused himself
from attending them farther on their journey.
The ridge of lava was climbed with extreme
difficulty, for the stones of which it was
composed lay detached, and there were so
many deep holes between them, that it was
necessary to use the greatest caution in walking
to prevent accidents. The ground shortly
after becoming more solid, their road was
consequently materially improved, and they
began their ascent on the western side, where
the continual cracking of the rock under
their feet at first caused them some uneasiness,
till, upon more attentive observation,
they found that the whole mountain itself
was reduced to a mere pumice-stone, lying
in horizontal strata of moderate thickness,
every where full of fissures; and hence, they
observe, may be formed some idea of the
intensity of the fife, whereby an immense
mountain has been so far consumed that all
the rocks which compose it will crumble
into asbes, ¡if the volcano that has produced
such an effect should again for a while
resume its operations. Contrary to their
expectations, they continued to ascend without
meeting with any obstacle, passing over a
continued series of sloping terraces, of which
they reckoned seven before they reached the
summit. The sides of the hill they found
from top to bottom deeply scarred with ravines
formed originally by the torrents of
lava, but npw serving as beds for the winter
cataracts. Among other curious minerals
that they met with on their way, they
gathered some that they considered as decisive
of the fact of Hecla having occasionally
thrown out water * as well as fire.; and they
* The discharge of water from volcanoes, as well
as Qre, is by no means unusual. Sir William Hamilton,
who most ingeniously endeavors to account for some of
the most striking appearances of the globe from this circumstance,
considers the water as merely rain that has
been deposited in the caverns, contrary, as he says, to
the generally received opinion that it arises from a connection
between the mountains and the sea. He men-
VOL. II. I