..a
.1
;h î
dently owing its existence to the agency of subterranean
fire. Nor does the basaltic formation
cease at Iceland, but, continuing northerly Avith a
small inclination to the eastward, it breaks out
again on the small island of Jan Meyen, Avhich is
also Avholly of volcanic origin, consisting chiefly of
the Mountain of Beerenberg, 6870 feet h igh ; and
on the sides of Avhich are tAA'o craters, one of them,
as stated by Mr. Scoresby, being six or scA'en
hundred yards in diameter ; and the belt betAveen
the mountain and the sea is composed of cinders,
slags, scoriæ, and trap rocks, striking through black
sand and vesicular basalt, the last of Avhich, high
up on the side of the mountain, exhibits columnar
masses.
Here, then, Ave have the plain and undeniable
evidence of subterranean or sub-marine fire,
exerting its influence under the sea, almost in a
direct line, to the extent of 161 degrees of latitude,
or more than 1100 statute miles. I f aa'c are to
suppose that one and the same efficient cause has
been exerted in heaving up this extended line of
igneous formations, from Fairhead to Jan Meyen,
Ave may form some vague notion hoAv deep-seated
the fiery focus must be to impart its force, perhaps
through numerous apertures, in a line of so great
an extent, and nearly in the same direction. It may
probably be considered the more remarkable, that
no indication whateA'er is found of volcanic fire on
the coast-line of Old Greenland, close to the Avest-
Avard of the last-mentioned island, and also to Iceland,
nor on th a t of Norway on the opposite side,
nor on th a t of Spitzhergen ; on these places all is
granite, porphyry, gneiss, mica-slate, clay-slate,
lime, marble, and sandstone.
Another remarkable fact is, th a t with all thè
materials in Iceland for constituting granite, there
is not, it is said, any granite in the Avhole island.
There is in the various lavas, the basalts, the sands,
the clays, and the other substances of Avhich the
island is composed, all the component parts—
silica, felspar, and mica, but not a fragment that
hears their union, such as generally occurs in other
extensive mmuntainous countries ; and Avith the
exception of a fcAV veins of Icelandic double refracting
spar, I could not learn that anything like
lime is to be found in Iceland. Is it that the
component parts of granite did not happen here
to be in a simultaneous state of fusion, or has the
granite formation remained below the ocean ; and,
as is sometimes the case, has it been perforated by
the rocks of the island, and uoav supports them ?
Whatever the cause may be, the fact I understand
is certain*. Would that Mr. Lyell, or some other
able geologist, could be persuaded to dedicate a
summer or tAvo to the examination of this extraordinary
island !
* Sir John Stanley’s party found a piece of granite on the shore
o f Stappen, but it was pronounced to have been part o f the ballast
o f some ship ; yet it induced a long search for a rock resembling
this specimen, but none was found.