of the hill whence it takes its
rise. After pursuing its course for several days, the main body of this
stream reached the edge of a great waterfall called Stapafoss, which
plunged into a deep abyss. Displacing the water, the lava here leaped
over the precipice, and formed a great cataract of fire. After this, it
filled the channel of the river, though extending itself in breadth far
beyond it, and followed it until it reached the sea.

ENORMOUS QUANTITY OF LAVA

The 3rd of August brought fresh accessions to the flood of lava still
pouring from the mountain. There being no room in the channel, now
filled by the former lurid stream, which had pursued a northwesterly
course, the fresh lava was forced to take a new direction towards the
southeast, where it entered the bed of another river with a barbaric
name. Here it pursued a course similar to that which flowed through the
channel of the Skapta, filling up the deep gorges, and then spreading
itself out into great fiery lakes over the plains.

The eruptions of lava from the mountain continued, with some short
intervals, for two years, and so enormous was the quantity poured forth
during this period that, according to a careful estimate which has been
made, the whole together would form a mass equal to that of Mont Blanc.
Of the two streams, the greater was fifty, the less forty, miles in
length. The Skapta branch attained on the plains a breadth varying from
twelve to fifteen miles--that of the other was only about half as much.
Each of the currents had an average depth of 100 feet, but in the
deep gorges it was no less than 600 feet. Even as late as 1794 vapors
continued to rise from these great streams, and the water contained in
the numerous fissures formed in their crust was hot.

The devastation directly wrought by the lava currents themselves was
not the whole of the evils they brought upon unfortunate Iceland and
its inhabitants. Partly owing to the sudden melting of the snows and
glaciers of the mountain, partly owing to the stoppage of the
river courses, immense floods of water deluged the country in
the neighborhood, destroying many villages and a large amount of
agricultural and other property. Twenty villages were overwhelmed by the
lava currents, while the ashes thrown out during the eruption covered
the whole island and the surface of the sea for miles around its
shores. On several occasions the ashes were drifted by the winds over
considerable parts