[Frost and fire : natural engines, tool-marks and chips : with sketches taken at home and abroad by a traveller] . snowshed onBodals Kaabe (Fig. 39, p. 204). As the steamer works on to the northwards, more hills ofthe same pattern rise. Fig. , p. 416, was sketched from adistance estimated at about forty miles. The cluster of snowydomes which thus rise to the west of the Vatna JokuU, andto the east of Hecla, cover a district of hidden fire. Smsill 416 black specks on the suow are seen to be the edges ofsmothered craters when a powerful glass is brought to bearupon them ; the coast-line is a suc
[Frost and fire : natural engines, tool-marks and chips : with sketches taken at home and abroad by a traveller] . snowshed onBodals Kaabe (Fig. 39, p. 204). As the steamer works on to the northwards, more hills ofthe same pattern rise. Fig. , p. 416, was sketched from adistance estimated at about forty miles. The cluster of snowydomes which thus rise to the west of the Vatna JokuU, andto the east of Hecla, cover a district of hidden fire. Smsill 416 black specks on the suow are seen to be the edges ofsmothered craters when a powerful glass is brought to bearupon them ; the coast-line is a succession of small cones and-craters. Skaptafells Sysla, the district thus covered with snow-domes, was the scene of one of the most famous of modemvolcanic eruptions. A mass of matter, calculated to be equalin dimensions to Mont Blanc, was ejected from the mountain;great glens were filled to the brim with lava, the sea was cum-bered with rubbish, the air was thick with volcanic dust, andthe face of the country was changed. But for all that, Eyjaf-yalla, MyrdaUs Jokull, and the rest of the cluster of domes now. Fio. Eyjafyalla and Mvrdals Jokull.—Vester Skaptafells 23, 1861; July 25, 1S62. send down their river-glaciers, which are grinding igneousrocks as steadily as if no such thing as subterranean heatexisted. As the sun rose and the steamer advanced, the air seemedto thicken and the hills to recede; the clear sky was leftbehind, and the gray sky rose. The tent of cloud seemedlower, and its rugged edges hung fluttering about the hightops, drifting slowly along, and casting blue shadows on thewhite world beneath. Right ahead, to the west, was, the /U^ /z 417 clear hard sea-horizon, with a line of bright sky, againstwhich rock and cloud, hill and island, rose as the vessel wentpanting on in the bright warm sun of noon. , At sunset the strange volcanic shapes of the WestmannaIslands glowed astern, as if they were still red-hot, and thewestern sky and the calm sea and
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