day, but earthquakes, with heavy peals of
thunder, together with subterraneous noises
and cracklings, continually increased; so
that during the whole day, and long after
the close of it, such noises were heard as
might be compared to the roaring of ;a number
of cataracts all meeting in the same place,
or something similar to a large kettle boiling
over impetuously.
On the 10th of June several fire-spouts
were distinctly seen, for the first time, rising
from among the mountains towards the
north. The black bank became more lofty
every day, while earthquakes, peals of thunder,
and strange sounds increased.
§ IV.
The river skaptaa The Skaptaa was formerly
disappears. y e r y }arg e r jiv e r f lo w e ( j
between Skaptartunga and Sida, and for the
most part ran parallel with the latter, which
was also divided by this river from the districts
Landbrot, Medalland, and Skaptartunga.
It took its rise from Sida or Skaptar-
Jokelen, an ice-mountain, situated about nine
leagues north of Sida. The stream was very
rapid, and the river in many places passable
only in boats. In the spring of 1783, a
vast quantity of fetid water, mixed with
gravel or dust, was observed running down
the Skaptaa, which was greatly swollen on
the 9th and 10th of June, when, to the
astonishment of every one, it totally disappeared,
and was so dried up in less than
twenty-four hours, that people walked across
with ease in such places as were formerly
crossed by travellers with difficulty in boats.
There is, however, still to be observed a
small running stream; but it only arises
from a number of little brooks which, proceeding
from the sides of the mountains,
discharge their waters into the bed of the
Skaptaa. These waters, in Iceland called
Berg-vand (to distinguish them from the
thick and milky Jokel-vand, of which the
Skaptaa and all other rivers deriving their
source from ice-mountains consist), were
quite clear and pellucid. So remarkable a
phenomenon as the drying up of the Skaptaa,
was fully accounted for on the ensuing
day, the 12th of June, when a dreadful fire-
stream came pouring down with the greatest
impetuosity, like a foaming sea, into the
VOL. II. K