fifi T"
i
t
might entirely prepoiTefs the thinking
ipeclator. It is true, beauty is pleafmg
both to our eyes and our thoughts ;
hut wonderful nature often makes the
moil laltiiig impreilions.
We cail anchor not fiir from Beifef-
tedr, the dwelling-place of the celebrated
Sturlefon, where we found two
trails of lava called Gorde Hualcj-
rc-Hraiin (for what we and the Italians
call Lava is in Iceland called Hraun,
from Urinna, to flow) of which the lail
particularly was remarkable, linee we
found there, befides a whole field
covered with lava, which mufl have
been liquid in the higheil degree,
whole mountains of turf. Chance
had direiled us exadlly to a fpot on.
which we could better, than on any
other part of Iceland, confider the
operations of a fire which had laid
waile a trail o f ten or twelve miles*.
* 'Fhe miles mentioned by Dr. Troi l are always
Swedlih, ten and a half o f which are equal to a degree
on one of the great circles of the globe ; and thereforq
one Swedifh mile is nearly equal to fix Englifh fliitute-
miles. Ten or twelve miles are therefore fixty or fe-
venty-tw’o Englifli miles.
We
We fpent feveral days here in examining
every thing with fo much the more
pleafure; for we found ourfelres, as
it were, in a new world.
We had now feen almoil all the ef-
feils o f a volcano, except the crater,
from which the fire had proceeded: in
order therefore to examine this like-
wife, we undertook a journey o f twelve
days to Mount Heckla it fe lf ; we travelled
fifty or fixty miles* over an uninterrupted
track of lava, and gained
the pleafure o f being the firil who
ever reached the fummit of this celebrated
volcano. ^ The caufe that no
one had been there before is partly
founded in fupeiflition, and partly in
the extreme difficulty o f the afcent
before the lafl eruption of fire. There
was not one o f our company who did
not wifli to have his cloaths a little
finged, only for the fake o f feeing
Heckla in ablaze ; and we almofl flattered
ourfelves with this hope, for the
bifliop o f Skallholt had informed us
* Three hundred or three hundred and fixty Eng-
lifh miles.
A s by