Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Pages ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
LETTERS ON ICELAND:
CONTAINING
OBSERVATIONS ON THE CIVIL, LITERARY, ECCLESIASTICAL, AND NATURAL HISTORY; ANTIQU!-
TIES, VOLCANOS, BASALTES, HOT SPRINGS 3; CUSTOMS, DRESS, MANNERS OF THE INHABITAN TSs
&c. Kc. MADE, DURING A VOYAGE UNDERTAKEN IN THE YEAR 1772, BY JOSEPH BANKS, ESQ.
F. R. S. ASSISTED BY DR. SOLANDER,y F. &. S.y DR. Je LIND, Fe R. Sy) DRe UNO VON TROIL, AND
SEVERAL OTHER LITERARY AND INGENIOUS GENTLEMEN,
é Written by UNO VON TROIL, D. D.
Firft Chaplain to his Swedith Majetty, Almoner of the Swedifh Orders of Knighthood, and Member of
the Academy of Sziences at Stockholm.
TO WHICH ARE ADDED,
The Letters of Dr. [ure and Dr. Bacu to the Auruor, concerning the Edda and the Elephantiafis of
Icevanp: alfo, Profeflor BerGman’s curious Obfervations and Chemical Examination of the Lava
and other Subftances produced on the Ifland.
—_—E—
INTRODUCTION.
THE accounts of Iceland, which have hitherto made their appearance in the Englifh
language, are of fuch a nature, that it would betray ignorance or partiality to recom-
mend them to the public as fatisfactory and faithful.
The firft writer of any known hiftory of Iceland in the prefent century, was John
Anderffon, afterwards burgomafter of Hamburgh, who undertook a voyage to this not
much-frequented ifland in a Greenland fhip ; but the authenticity of his performance
is far from being fuch as may be relied on with confidence.
Niels Horrebow, a Danifh aftronomer, was fent to Iceland by the court of Denmark,
on purpofe to contradict Anderflon’s account: he publifhed fome obfervations on Ice-
land, but from a too great a defire to pleafe his employers, he fell into the oppofite error,
and paints all his objects with a glow of colouring, that does not exactly correfpond
with the truth.
In Richer’s Continuation of Rollin’s Hiftory is a hiftory of Iceland, a moft pitiful
compilation, and full of the grofleft errors that ever difgraced the hiftorical page.
Under the authority of the Royal Society of Sciences at Copenhagen, Eggert Olafsen
and Biarne Povelfen, two men of learning, natives of Iceland, and refiding in the country,
travelled all over that ifland, and gave, in two volumes in quarto, a faithful and ample
account of all that deferves the attention of the learned and curious, illuftrated by nu-
merous engravings ; but though the performance is accurate and circumftantial, yet it
is unfortunately clogged with repetitions, and the faéts are recounted in fo tedious and
uninterefting a manner, that it requires a moft phlegmatic temper, and a large fund of
patience, to go through the whole of this work, for it is filled with a long and dull re.
cital of events, methodized in the moft formal manner poflible. It can therefore by
no means be thought fuperfluous, that Dr. Von Troil has favoured the literary world
with his interefling Letters on Iceland ; a work which, on account of its varied matter,
and the great learning difplayed every where for the inftruction of the curious reader,
deferves the warmeft approbation of the public.
Men of talents and learning will, we flatter ourfelves, think highly of this prefent per-
formance by Dr. Von Troil, though perhaps it may be fometimes a little deficient ip
point of language,
The
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
