of forty years ago, but has never till now met the
public eye. Mr. Baine, a third gentleman who
accompanied Sir John, was employed in measuring
a base alono- the shore, and takino'' O anoOmies for calculatinoO
the heioo- ht of the Snæfell Yokul ~^eometricallv,
and also in making- sketches and observa-
tions on the coast, composed of lava and basalt.
Sir John says (in a letter to ray fathe r),—“ I
have sent yon several draivings of the basaltic
caves at Stappen, from which your son may
select those for engraving which he thinks the
most interesting. I have copied four views from
my own sketch-books, which, as tliey are in
pencil, I hope ivill not get rubbed in travelling.
I have also sent you some made out from Mr.
Baine’s drawings; you may get copies made of
them all, if yon like it, for your o a v u keeping, and
return the originals at your leisure.
“ I have sent you also extracts from the Journals
of Messrs. Wright, Baine, and Benners, that your
son might be in possession of all the information
Avanting for the account of the basalts and the
Yokul he wishes to give the public, and which,
indeed, ought to form a part of any book published
by a traveller in Iceland of the Avonderful things of
the country. Hecla has a great name, but it is
nothincr more than a volcanic mountain retaining a
little heat; but Snæfell Yokul, from its very
graceful form and height, and snoAVS, and situation,
as the horn of the tongue of land dividing the I a v o
great Bays of Brcede-fiord and Faxé-fiord, is a much
more remarkable feature of the geography of Ic e land
than Hecla. And then its rise out of a
basaltic base, and the contact of its streams of lava
AA’ith the basaltic columns, and the ferocity Avith
Avhich subterraneous fires have broken and tossed
about all the country in its immediate neighbourhood,
require that attention should be called to it,
to induce future travellers to give a great deal of
their time to the observation of all its phenomena.
The Yokul has, T apprehend, been formed by repeated
eruptions of lava, &c., from one cratei’, but
the ground must have been burst in many places ;
for the shiveringo- of the basalts into the confused
state in which they are found, and the throAving
up ashes and scoriæ in the pyramidical heaps in
which they stand at the base of the mountain, and
throughout the Avhole Syssel of Snæfellness, there
must have been eruptions, forming separate hills ;
for though at a distance the high sands betAveen
the eastern and Avestern ends of the tongue of
land, dividing the tAvo fiords, have the appearance
of a continued range, when seen from the
summit of the Yokul, no two hills are joined, but
each tells its own story of its formation from fires
exerting their force at distinct periods of time.
I suspect that, from the heat not having been so
intense in the earth, when these hills Avere throAvn
up,”^as AA'hen great volcanoes cover miles and miles
i: lu