ronie reafon to iuppoiè that a tree would
direfily be confumed to ailies in fo
violent a fire, though the contrary
may alfo be poffible, vrlien it is in the
fame inilant overturned, covered, and
fmothered ; therefore I will not even
venture to offer this opinion as probable.
There is ilill another likely fup-
poiition. The trees may have been
overturned by an earthquake, and
then covered beneath the hot allies o f a
volcano, in the fame manner as happened
at Herculaneum, and other
places, where whole towns haveiliared
the fame fate.
That there have been formerly con-
iiderable woods in Iceland, can fcarcely
be doubted ; nay, there are at this time
ibme fmall fpots covered with tree.s, as
at Haliormllad, Huufefeld, and Aa,
and in feveral other places. However,
there are no fir or pine-trees ;
and the birch-trees now exifling never
exceed the height o f eight or twelve
feet, and are not above three or four
inches thick, which is partly owing
to bad management, partly to the devaftations
vafliorts caiifed by fire or hurricanes,
and the Greenland floating-ice : the
lall is the caufe that at Stadar-hrauns,
Eyry, and Kiolfield, whole fpots of land
are feen covered with withered birch-
trees. But thefe fmall birch being found
infufliclent to fupply the inhabitants
with fuel, they likewife make uie of turf,
fern, juniper, and black crake or crow-
berry bullies [empetriim nigruni) ; in
other places they burn the bones o f the
cattle killed for butchers meat, and
fiflies moiiiened with train-oil; alfo
dried cow-dung that has been the
whole winter in the meadow ; and lail
of all floating-wood. This floating-
wood is obtained in great abundance
every year, particularly at Langanas
on the north-eail coafl, at Hornflrand
on the north-wefl fide, and every
where on the northern coafl o f the
country *. There are feveral different
* The immenfe quantity of wood floating down the
Miffiiiippi, the St. Lawrence, and other rivers of North
America, are probably thofe which are carried to the
northern regions. From the gulph of Mexico a ftrong
current fets acrofs the Atlantic in a fouth-wefl: to north-
eafl direilion, or nearly, and carries many tropical
fruits on the coafl o f Norway, the Feros, and Iceland ;
which remarkable circumflancc has been noticed by
that