trict; yet it is by no means my opinion,
that this stream can have taken its rise solely
from the Hverfisfliot. Indeed, the color of
its waters sufficiently proves a mixture of
the mountain, and of the jokul streams;
the latter discharging themselves into the
plain from the jokul stream of the Hverfisfliot,
which was choked up by the lava;
whereas the other stream proceeded from
various small rivulets and springs, which
descended on the western sides of the mountains.
Without much reflection we might be
inclined to believe that these waters would
at length rejoin, and run along the original
channel of the river; but it must be remembered,
that the channel itself, was originally
not deep at this place, but had
been subject to many alterations and shift-
ings, and likewise that, wherever it stretched
out into the sandy plain (being divided
into different branches) it carried along with
it, and heaped up continually, the loose
sand. On the 22nd and 24th of July, 1784,
when, in company with Mr. Livetzen and
some other persons, I travelled over this
district, we could scarcely observe any
traces of the bed of the old river, and it
is not a little remarkable that the whole of the
vast quantity of water, which had here spread
itself over the sandy plain, was still smoking
in many places. In some parts so
great was the heat, that we could scarcely
bear to hold our hands in i t ; a circumstance
that was rendered more particularly unpleasant
by our being under the necessity of
riding at a foot-pace for three long Danish
miles through this hot, and, in general, very
deep water. Every where, too, we were
enveloped in a thick sulphureous fog and
haze, that arose from the surface of it. In
all probability the confined water will increase
still more beneath the lava; particularly
when it becomes thoroughly cooled,
and nothing is lost by evaporation. A new
channel for the Hverfisfliot will consequently
be formed; for the water, now held in an
unnatural state, from being as it were dammed
up, must force itself a passage, either
through the lava, or by breaking down its
sides; yet I do not apprehend that any inundation
will be the consequence, or that any
damage will ensue, except indeed to the two
VOL II. N