Earthquakes and volcanoes have thro' all ages laid wafte this unhappy ifland. Hecla, the only one of thefe volcanoes, which is known by name to the reft of Europe, feems at prefent extinct; but the principles of fire, which lie concealed all over the ifland, often break out in other places. There have been already within this century many eruptions, as dreadful, as they were unexpected. From the bofom of thefe enormous heaps of ice we have lately feen afcend torrents of fmoke, of flame, and melted or calcined fubftances, which ſpread fire and inundation wide over the neighbouring fields, whilft they filled the air with thick clouds, and hideous roarings caufed by the melting of fuch immenfe quantities of fnow and ice. One meets almoft every where in travelling through this country with marks of the fame confufion and diforder. One fees enormous piles of fharp and broken rocks, which are fometimes porous and half calcined, and often frightful on account of their blacknefs, and the traces of fire, which they ftill retain. The clefts and hollows of the rocks are only filled with thofe hideous and barren ruins; but in the valleys, which are formed between the mountains, and which are fcattered here and there all over the ifland very often at a confiderable diftance from each other, are found very extenfive and delightful plains,
