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Earthquakes and volcanoes have thro’ all ages laid waste this unhappy island. Hecla, the only one of these volcanoes, which is known by name to the rest of Europe, seems at present extinct; but the principles of fire, which lie concealed all over the island, often break out in other places. There have been already within this century many eruptions, as dreadful, as they were unexpected. From the bosom of these enormous heaps of ice we have lately seen ascend torrents of smoke, of flame, and melted or calcined substances, which spread fire and inundation wide over the neighbouring fields, whilst they filled the air with thick clouds, and hideous roarings caused by the melting of such immense quantities of snow and ice. One meets almost every where in travelling through this country with marks of the same confusion and disorder. One sees enormous piles of sharp and broken rocks, which are sometimes porous and half calcined, and often frightful on account of their blackness, and the traces of fire, which they still retain. The clefts and hollows of the rocks are only filled with those hideous and barren ruins; but in the valleys, which are formed between the mountains, and which are scattered here and there all over the island very often at a considerable diftance from each other, are found very extensive and delightful plains,
