On the night of the 15th of September, two new openings were
formed--one on the eastern, and the other on the southern slope--
from both of which lava was discharged for twenty-two hours. It
flowed to a distance of upwards of twenty miles, killing many
cattle and destroying a large tract of pasturage. Twelve miles from
the crater, the lava-stream was between forty and fifty feet deep
and nearly a mile in width. On the 12th of October a fresh torrent
of lava burst forth, and heaped up another similar mass. The
mountain continued in a state of activity up to April 1846; then it
rested for a while, and began again in the following month of
October. Since then, however, it has enjoyed repose.

The effects of these eruptions were disastrous. The whole island
was strown with volcanic ashes, which, where they did not smother
the grass outright, gave it a poisonous taint. The cattle that ate
of it were attacked by a murrain, of which great numbers died. The
ice and snow, which had gathered about the mountain for a long
period of time, were wholly melted by the heat. Masses of pumice
weighing nearly half a ton were thrown to a distance of between
four and five miles.

[Illustration: Mount Hecla]

Mount Hecla is not the only volcano in Iceland. There are several
others; and from one of them, named Skaptar Yokul, there was, in
the year 1783, an eruption still more violent than that from Hecla
above described. It began on the 8th of June, and raged with little
abatement till the end of August, whence onward it continued, but
with less violence, till the following year. The lava, in this