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Faxe Bugten, which are inserted in the Danish
chart by the name of Hraun, or lava shoals,
having from eight to twelve fathoms of water
upon them, while all around them the depth is
from thirty-five to forty fathoms. These shoals,
together with the sunken rocks along the coast, are
considered to have once appeared in the shape of
small islands above the surface, and subsequently
sunk below it, just like the Sabrina and Graham
Islands, both of which have left shoals below
the spot Avhere they had appeared above water.
The little island of Vidoe, and three or four
others, hear the strongest marks of igneous
origin in their trap-rocks, imperfect basaltic pillars,
and in the pumice-stone and cinders which surround
them.
These appearances, combined with the character
of the whole line of coast, carried conviction of
the general accuracy of the picture of Iceland,
as drawn by a traveller who passed over a
greater extent of its surface than perhaps any other
visiter, with the exception of the two Danes,
Olafsen and Povelsen. “ The opinion,” he says,
that this island owes its formation to the operation
of submarine A'olcanoes is not only confirmed
by analogical reasonings, deduced from the appearances
presented by other islands, which are confessedly
of volcanic origin, but gains ground in
proportion to the progress of a closer and more
accurate investigation of the geological phenomena
which every part of it exhibits to the view
of the naturalist. In no quarter of the globe do
we find crowded within the same extent of surface
such a number of ignivomous mountains, so many
boiling springs, or such immense tracts of lava, as
here arrest the attention of the traveller. The
general aspect of the country is the most rugged
and dreary imaginable. On every side appear
marks of confusion and devastation, or the tremendous
sources of these evils in the yawning craters
of huge and menacing volcanoes. Nor is the mind
of a spectator relieved from the disagreeable emotions
arising from the reflection on the subterranean
fires which are raging beneath him, hy a temporary
survey of the huge mountains of perpetual ice
by which he is surrounded. These very masses,
which exclude the most distant idea of heat, contain
iu their bosom the fuel of conflagration, and
are frequently seen to emit smoke and flames, and
pour doAvn upon the plains immense floods of
boiling mud and water, or red hot torrents of
devouring lava.” *
But we are yet only on the summit of the beach
covered with volcanic productions. The flat country
immediately beyond it showed no signs of its
having been disturbed by internal fire, with the
single exception of a volume of smoke or steam
* Henderson’s Iceland, vol. i. Introduction, p. 11.