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VON TROIL’S LETTERS ON ICELAND. 689
which were woollen, remained entirely unhurt, but his fhirt and waiftcoat, which were
both of linen, were burnt; and when his cloaths were pulled off, it was found that the
flefh and fkin on the right fide were confumed to the very bones. The maid-fervant,
who wanted to affift him in faving the cattle, was likewife {truck by the lightning, but
did not die till feveral days after, during which time fhe fuffered inexpreflible torture.
It is likewife faid, that when the put on her cloaths, they were finged by the glutinous
fires, which cleaved to her body. At firftI hefitated to believe this as true; but when
Tread in your Cofmography that Braccini had obferyed, in 1631, that a column of {moke
from Vefuvius extended over feveral miles of the country, from which deadly lightning
proceeded ; and that the fame happened in 1767, when the iron rods ereéted in Naples
became electric whenever Vefuvius emitted fire, I am the more inclined to believe that
there is fomething electrical in this kind of fire, as the fame phenomena appear in thun-
der and lightning.
LETTER XIX.—ro proressor BERGMAN:
Of the Volcanos in Iceland.
Stockholm, September 21, 1774.
Ir fearcely ever happens that the mountains begin to throw out fire unexpectedly ;
for befides a loud rumbling noife, which is heard at a confiderable diftance, and for
feveral days preceding any eruption, and a roaring and cracking in the part from whence
the fire is going to burft forth, many fiery meteors are obferved, but unattended in ge-
neral with any violent concuffion of the earth; though fometimes earthquakes, of which
the hiftory of the country affords feveral inftances, have accompanied thefe dreadful
conflagrations.
Among the traces left by thefe eruptions, are particularly the clefts which are fre-
quently to be met with, the largeft of which is Almennegiaa, near the water of Tingalla ;
it is very long, and one hundred and five feet in breadth. The direétion of the chafm
itfelf is from north to fouth : its weftern wall, from which the other has been perpen-
dicularly divided, is one hundred and feven feet fix inches in height, and confilts of
many ftratas (each of which is about ten inches in height) of lava, grown cold at different
times, as may eafily be difcovered by the apparent cru{t, which is full of blifters, of a
darker brown, and not fo much comprefled as the remaining part of the mafs of lava.
The eaftern wall is only forty-five feet four inches in height ; and that part of it which
is directly oppofite to the higheft part on the other fides is no more than thirty-fix feet
five inches high.
It is likewife confidered as a fign of an impending eruption, when {mall lakes, rivulets,
and ftreams dry up. Some perfons believe that it does not contribute a little to haften
the eruption, when the mountain is fo covered with ice, that the holes are {topped up
through which the exhalations, &c. often found a free paflage.
Though it is by no means my opinion that this contributes much to it, it cannot be
denied, that the fire is generally contained in thefe mountains covered with ice, or, as
they are called in the country, sokuls.
The firft thing that is ufually obferved, before a new eruption of fire, is the burfting
of the mafs of ice with a dreadful noife, whence it is called in Icelandic ¥ckla-hliod (Jo-
kul’s Sound) and Yok/a brefar.
Flames then burft forth, and lightning and balls of fire ifflue with the f{moke, which
are feen feveral miles off. With the flames proceed a number of larger and fmaller
VOL. I. 47 {tones,
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