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702 VON TROIL’s LETTERS ON ICELAND.
Still more to the weft : Pog,
1. Stratum beneath the pillars - - ig 8
2, Height of the pillars - P geil
3. The ftratum above - - Ly ey |
The ftratum beneath the pillars here mentioned, is evidently ¢uffz, which had been
heated by fire, and feems to be interlarded, as it were, with fmall bits of bafalt ; and the
red or ftratum above the pillars, in which large pieces of pillars are fometimes found ir-
regularly thrown together, and in unequal dire¢tions, is evidently nothing elfe but
lava. Though a prodigious degree of fire mu{t formerly have been requifite to pro-
duce this upper {tratum, yet there are not the leaft traces in its exterior, the pillars
having been removed by it, for the whole enormous mafs refts upon them. F
When you move farther on, and pafs the northern fide of the ifland, you come to
Cormorant’s Cave, where the bed beneath the pillars is raifed, and the pillars them-
felves decreafe in height: they are, however, tolerably difting, till you are paft a
bay which extends very far into the country, on the fide of which the pillars entirely
difappear. The mountains here confift of a dark brown ftone, of which I cannot
afirm with certainty whether it is lava or not, and where not the leaft regularity is to
be obferved; but as foon as you pafs the fouth-eaft fide of the ifland, the {tones begin
again to aflume a regular figure, theugh fo gradually, that it is fearcely perceptible at
fir(t, till at laft, the regular and crooked pillars again appear with which I began my
defcription.
The pillars have from three to feven fides, but the greater number have five or fix,
and fo crouded together, that a heptagonal pillar is furrounded with feven others,
which join clofely to its feven fides. In fome places, however, there are little infignifi-
cant openings, but they are filled up with guarz, which, in one place, had even made
its way through a number of pillars, though without in the leaft deftroying their re-
gularity. The pillars confift of many joints or pieces, of about a foot in height,
which fo exactly fit upon one another, that it is difficult to introduce a knife between
the interftices. The upper piece was generally concave, fometimes flat and rarely con-
vex ; if the upper joint was flat, the loweft was fo likewife, but when it was excavated,
the lower one was rounded and reverfed.
The fides of the pillars are not all equally broad. The following meafurements
were taken of four pillars :
N° I. with 4 fides. BOTs
ift fide - - Diameter 1 5
ad - > - bei
3d - : 1.36
4th - - * 1X30
N° Il. with 5 fides.
ift fide - - Diameter 1 10
ad - - - 120
3d - - - 2 is
4th - - . Wee
sth - - - 1S
No. Ill. with 6 fides,
1ft fide - - Diameter o 10
ad - - - 2. 2
3d - “ - 2° 2
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