Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 edition. Excerpt: ... askja, iceland'S laegest volcano. chapter I. pkefatory. 'Now the firm earth shakes like a frighted beast, And the island quakes from west to east; And seas of fire come from the rent, As though in ire by Heaven sent!' (john Mill.) jT is generally believed that Hekla is the chief volcano in Iceland; but that this is most certainly not the case will be shown in the following pages. In the desert interior of the island---the very fact of its being a volcano unknown even to the Icelanders themselves prior to 1875--stands a volcanic mountain whose vast proportions dwarf HeMa into utter insignificance. Its crater is between seventeen and eighteen miles in circumference, and consequently has an area of not less than twenty-three square miles! There is ample proof in the condition of the volcano that it has erupted time after time since the settlement of Iceland, but owing to its distance from the inhabited coastal districts, no earlier eruption than that of 1875 is recorded. Eruptions that occurred there were placed to the credit of other volcanoes, or were said to have taken place amidst the icy wastes of the Vatna Jokull, a glacier-covered mountain region south of the volcano, having an area of 3,000 square miles. In the spring of the year mentioned, it may perhaps be remembered, all Europe was astonished by hearing that a large quantity of volcanic-ash had been wafted across the North Sea from the direction of Iceland and scattered over the Scandinavian peninsula as far inland as the central districts of Sweden. No news had been received from the Icelanders since the preceding November, the Danish mail steamers at that time not running in winter, and in March volcanic-ash brought the first tidings that a terrible eruption had taken place in...