Soon after four o’clock we obiervecl
that the earth began to tremble in
three different places, as likewife the
top o f a mountain, which was about
three hundred fathoms diftant from the
mouth .of the fpring. We alfo frequently
heard a fubterraneous noiie
like the difcharge o f a cannon ; and
immediately after a column o f water
fpouted from the opening, which at a
o-reat heiffiit divided itfelf into feveral O O
rays, and according to the obfervations
made with the quadrant was ninety-
two feet high. Our great furprize at
this uncommon force o f the air and
fire was yet increafed, when many
ilones, which we had flung into the
aperture, were thrown up again with
the fpouting water. You can eafily
conceive. Sir, with how much pleafure
we fpent the day here ; and indeed, I
am not much furprized, that a people
fo much inclined to fuperftition as the
Icelanders are,* imagine this to be the
entrance o f hell ; for this reafon they
feldom pafs one o f thefe openings without
fpitting into it ; or, as they fay,
iitifandens mun^ into thé devil’s mouth.
But
But I think it is time to finiili my
long letter; and I will only try your
patience with one thing more, which
likewife deferves to be better known.
Natural luilorians always obferved thofe
large remarkable pillars, which the
hand o f nature has prepared in Iceland,
and in fome other places, with
the o-reatefl attention. The Giant’s O
Caufe way has, till now, been con-
iidered as the largefl and moil regular
aifemblage of thefe columns ; but we
have difcovered one on our expedition
through the weftern iflands of Scotland,
which infinitely iurpaifes it.
The whole ifland of Stafla * con'iiils
almoil entirely o f thefe pillars, which
are as regular as can be imagined ;
they feem to be of the fame fubflance
as the Iriili ones, and have from three
to feven iides ; each pillar is fur-
rounded by others, that join fo elofely
* See the account of Staifa by'Jofeph Banks, Efq,
inferted in Pennant’s Tour in Scotland, and Voyage to
the Hebrides, 1772, page 299, 309, and the fine
views of thefe bafalts, engraved after the accurate
drawings executed by Mr. John Frederick Miller, employed
by Mr. Banks, and communicated by the laft-
mentioned gentleman, for the adorning of Mr. Pennant’s
Tour,
to