The North-Atlantic Sea-Bed: comprising a diary of the voyage on board H.M.S. Bulldog, in 1860, and observations on the presence of animal life, ... at great depths in the ocean

Front matter

THE NORTH-ATLANTIC SEA-BI COMPRISING A DIAEY OF THE VOYAGE ON BOARD H.M.S. BULLDOG, IN 1860 ; AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRESENCE OF ANIMAL LIFE, AND THE FORMATION AND NATURE OF ORGANIC DEPOSITS, AT GREAT DEPTHS IN THE OCEAN. BY G. C. WALLICH, M.D., F.L.S., F.G.S., SURGEON ON THE RETIRED LIST H.M. INDIAN ARMY ; NATURALIST TO THE EXPEDITION DESPATCHED IN THE ABOVE TEAR, UNDER COMMAND OP SIR F. L. M'CLINTOCK, R.N., TO SURVEY THE PROPOSED NORTH-ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH ROUTE BETWEEN GREAT BEITAIN AND AMERICA. PUBLISHED WITH THE SANCTION OF THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF THE ADMIRALTY.

Part I

— Price 15s. CONTAINING PAGES 1 to 160, MAP, and PLATES I. to TI. LONDON: JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXIl. THE NORTH-ATLANTIC SEA-BED: COMPRISING A DIARY OF THE VOYAGE ON BOARD H.M.S. BULLDOG, IN 1860; AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRESENCE OF ANIMAL LIFE, AND THE FORMATION AND NATURE OF ORGANIC DEPOSITS, AT GREAT DEPTHS IN THE OCEAN. •BY G. C. WALLICH, M.D., F.L.S., F.G.S., SURGEON ON THE RETIRED LIST H.M. INDIAN ARMY * NATURALIST TO THE EXPEDITION DESPATCHED IN THE ABOVE YEAR, UNDER COMMAND OF SIR F. L. M'CLINTOCK, R.N., TO SURVEY THE PROPOSED NORTH-ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH ROUTE BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA. PUBLISHED WITH THE SANCTION OF THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF THE ADMIRALTY. LONDON: JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXII. PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF SOMERSET, K.G., FIRST LORD COMMISSIONER FOR EXECUTING THE OFFICE OF LORD HIGH ADMIRAL OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, THIS VOLUME, EMBODYING A SMALL CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SEA, IS, BY PERMISSION, MOST RESPECTFULLY AND GRATEFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. THE NORTH-ATLANTIC SEA-BED

PART I. CHAPTER

I. DEPARTURE FROM STORNOWAY. — THE FAROE ISLANDS. — SUSPIRIA DE PRO- FUNDIS.— BASALTIC DRIFT.— EFFECTS OF DEEP-SEATED CURRENTS.— VOLCANIC DETRITUS ALONG SEA-BED. — DEEP ARCTIC CURRENT. — THE WESTMANN ISLANDS.— ASPECT OF SOUTHERN ICELAND.— CHARACTER OF THE SEA-BED ALONG ITS SHORE.— ARRIVAL AT REEIAVIK.— ICELANDIC SCENERY.— GREAT LAVA-STREAMS.— ABRASIVE NATURE OF THE SCORIACEOUS ROCK.— OBSIDIAN DUST.— MODIFICATION OF SIR JOHN ROSS'S SOUNDING " CLAMS."— EFFECTS OF RECENT ERUPTION OF KOTLA.— EJECTION OF ICE FROM CRATER.— EXPLA- NATION OF THIS PHENOMENON.— PREVALENCE OF SICKNESS DURING VOL- CANIC ERUPTIONS. On the 2nd of July, 1860, H.M.S. Bulldog steamed out of the little harbour of Stornoway, and our North- Atlantic cruise fairly commenced. July 4. — For the first time since leaving Spithead, now eleven days ago, the sun has shone out brightly, and we are revelling in a glorious summer morning.

About an hour after midnight the " Dimon Rocks " were sighted, although distant between thirty and thirty-five miles ; so that we are already in the region of no night. Nothing could exceed the beauty of the panorama presented to our view, as, one after another, the bold headlands of the Faroe Islands burst upon us. Although no vestige of tree or shrub clothes the declivities, and the sombre tints of the trap rock are relieved only here and there by brilliant patches of green sward, or orange-tinted lichens, so varied is the outline, and intersected with B THE FAROE ISLANDS. 2 chasms and sparkling water-courses, that all idea of monotony is lost in the general grandeur of the scenery. Suddenly the magnificent fiord which separates Stromoe and Naalsae, the two principal islands of the group, from each other, opened out upon us.

Sweeping round a bold headland into this, we at once found ourselves surrounded by lofty hills, whose bases, broken up into every variety of cliff and cavern, formed the water-line, whilst their summits might be seen, far in the background, stretching beyond an alternating series of ridges and chasms, until they attained the height of from 1500 to 2000 feet. In some of the more elevated hollows large drifts of dazzling snow still lin gered, and gave token of a late and boisterous winter. Strange to say, these drifts were principally observable on the southern slopes. But the most charming feature was the constant succession of torrents and cascades which dashed impetuously downwards to the fiords, and looked in the distance like so many living streams of alabaster ; whilst around the summits of the ranges whence they sprung the layers of grey mist hung for a moment or two, as if clasping them in a parting embrace, and then glided away, or became dissipated in the atmosphere around.

Continuing our course along the fiords, which were rarely less than from one to two miles across, we speedily reached Thorshaven, the chief town of the Faroe Islands, took on board a pilot, and finally came to anchor, about noon, at the entrance to the little land-locked bay of Westmannshaven. Having hired a boat, and satisfied my curiosity by a ramble ashore, I devoted the remainder of the afternoon to dredging. Jidy 6. — Too foggy yesterday to leave the anchorage and get to sea again. Towards evening the rain, which came down in torrents during the afternoon, cleared off. I sat up till midnight, and at that hour took a sketch of the village and harbour. The pink tints left by the setting sun were still visible on some clouds that floated away behind the western range of hills, and it seemed almost impossible to believe that night was so far advanced.

Up anchor and away at 7 a.m. The morning gave promise of fine weather; but it soon became foggy again, and we were accordingly doomed to lose all save a partial glimpse of the famed promontory of " Muhlen Head." But even this glimpse afforded an idea of its grandeur ; for, steering along almost within SUSPIRIA DE PROFUNDIS. 3 stone's-throw of the shore, we could discern its perpendicular character, and the mighty blocks of detached cliff standing out from the main mass like outworks to some Titanic fortress. In ten minutes after catching our parting view of this towering headland, we were running along merrily with a clear blue sky over head and sunshine; so that the demon of the Faroese mist only remained faithful to his own traditions. Several soundings have been taken today ; but these are of no interest, being from shoal water.

Although it is blowing fresh from N.W. almost directly in our teeth, the last cast was " up and down " — showing how admirably a fixed position may be maintained under steam, even in bad weather. Another sounding is going on whilst I write. It is midnight, and yet the hght streams down through my cabin windows. July 9. — The weather, which has been bad enough for the past two days, threatens to become still worse. This is provoking ; for under more favourable circumstances we should, ere this time, have sighted the coast of Iceland, some where in the vicinity of Ingolfshofde, and been near enough to the land to see Hecla and the new volcano which burst into activity in May last. As it is, the ship has been kept well clear of the land, and we shall, in all probability, lose a very grand spectacle.

From five to six soundings have been taken daily, the intervals varying from a few miles, in the neighbourhood of the coast-lines, to a degree, or thereabouts, at mid-distance between them. In the examination of the material brought up, my time has been so fully occupied, that anything like a few hours' continuous rest is out of the question. Already my views, regarding the extension of animal Hfe to much greater depths than is usually allowed, have received a certain degree of confirmation. In a sounding (No. 15) taken yesterday, at a point about two-thirds of the distance between the Faroes and Iceland, the Conical Cup* brought up, from a depth of 682 fathoms, a piece of quartz-rock about an inch square, several frag ments of basalt, an old and much-worn fragmentary valve of Pollicipes, a minute pellet of mud about the size of a pea, a calcareous Serpula-tuhe — about * For a description of this and other forms of Sounding apparatus alluded to in the Diary, the reader is referred to the Chapter on Sounding and Sounding Apparatus.

The organisms referred to -will be found described in the Chapters devoted to Natural History. b2 BASALTIC DRIFT. 4 half an inch in length, and evidently just broken off from the stone to which it must have been attached, inasmuch as the fleshy matter was perfectly fresh at the point of fracture — and lastly, a minute Spirorbis and two shells of Truncatu lina lobata still adherent to small stones and apparently alive. Leaving the discussion of the conditions essential to the maintenance of animal life at great depths to be set forth in another chapter, two very remarkable facts remain to be noticed in connexion with this sounding. The first of these is the almost entire absence of any soft deposit at a spot which, according to the evidence afforded by the progressive depths noted on either side, would appear to be the deepest portion of the sea between the Faroe Islands and the south-west part of Iceland.

The second is the rolled condition of the basaltic gravel. Now, although it is quite clear that the small trace of mud brought up in this sounding is, of itself, no proof that soft deposit does not occur in considerable quantity, the absence of such deposit is rendered probable by the presence of permanently sessile Annelids and Foraminifera; inasmuch as these creatures could not exist at all, save at the immediate surface of the sea-bed, or in water free from currents of sufficient velocity to dislodge or remove them. On the other hand, the rounded basaltic gravel would, at first sight, appear to countenance the existence of a rolling action such as a current would produce. And doubtless these pieces of gravel have, at one time or other, been reduced to their present form by such a force.

But certain appearances on their surface would indicate their long-continued retention at the point from which they were brought up. Thus, although for a depth of about -^0-th of an inch the basalt is of the most compact kind, the stone has completely changed colour from its normal glistening black to an ochreous yellow, owing to long immersion. This ochreous layer is in other respects identical with the mass within, and cannot possibly be mistaken for an incrustation formed from without. In a sounding obtained early this morning, rounded masses of basalt were again met with, but the depth in this case was only 64 fathoms. If the former were dropped from drifting icebergs, in their rolled condition, it must have been under a widely different order of things from that in operation now ; for no iceberg has ever been known to traverse this region.

It is probable, therefore, that the bed of the ocean has subsided, and that these rolled masses have rested in their present position from a period when currents or tides of sufficient power to produce their EFFECTS OF DEEP-SEATED CURRENTS. 5 rounded shape swept across it. But although no current now exists in this locality capable of producing such an effect, or of transporting masses of mineral matter even as small as those under notice, there appears to me to be strong evidence in favour of an offshoot of the Arctic current slowly moving downwards between the Faroe Islands and Iceland. It has been calculated that an ordinary stream, running at the rate of no more than 300 yards an hour, is capable of disintegrating and carrying away fine clay; that a rate of 800 yards (or somewhat less than half a mile) an hour, will suffice to transport coarse sand ; whilst a current running a mile and a half, will roll along rounded pebbles as large as a hen's egg, — the inertia of stones of ordinary specific gravity (that is, from 2*5 to 2*8) being reduced by more than a third on their immersion in water.

At extreme depths, and in water surcharged under an enormous pressure with saline matter, the inertia of masses of stone would be still further reduced ; and although a diminution of friction between them would accompany this reduction, the general result would be materially influenced, inasmuch as masses which could not otherwise have been dislodged would now cooperate in the rolling action. This is a very material point, and one which I cannot help thinking has been lost sight of, in a great measure, by those who argue that, however strong a current may be, the lower stratum of water is so retarded by friction against the bottom as almost entirely to lose its initial velocity. Supposing the bed of the sea to be perfectly level, the retardation would no doubt take place. But where very slight inclinations of the surface occur, so as to allow fresh portions of the water to impinge on the sand or gravel, it will at once be apparent that the primary force would at all events retain the greater portion of its influence.

In the case of plateaus of moderate area, the surfaces of which happen to be raised above the general level of the sea-bed, and more especially if they have a fall tending in the same direction as a deep-seated current, the entire force of the latter would take effect in rolling and transporting stones, as well as in wearing down the surface. I have stated that the sounding (No. 15 in the list) gives the greatest depth, in the line from the Faroes to Iceland, about two-thirds of the way across, or, in round numbers, about ninety miles to the eastward of Ingolfshofde. It is a very DEEP ARCTIC CURRENT. remarkable fact that, throughout the entire distance, nearly 200 miles, between the point at which this sounding was taken and the Faroes, not the slightest trace of volcanic detritus appears in the material brought up from the bottom.

Between long. 7° 55' and 13° 45' inclusive, eleven casts were made, and bottom brought up five times ; so that, had volcanic particles been present, some trace of them must at all events have been observable. This becomes the more remark able when it is borne in mind that, during eruptions of Hecla and Skaptar Jokul, the volcanic particles have been borne across the whole breadth of the North Sea, to the coast of Norway, in nearly the same parallel of latitude as the Faroes. It is difficult, therefore, to conceive that this large area of sea-bed, or at any rate that portion of it constituting the middle third of the distance alluded to, should not have received a share of the deposit, under favourable conditions as to atmospheric currents. On the other hand, from the 682-fathom locality to our present position, which I should say is not more than forty miles from the southern shore of Iceland, out of eight casts, seven on being brought up have each presented volcanic detritus.

Combining all these facts together, I am clearly of opinion that a deep-seated drift, bringing the colder waters from Spitzbergen and the western side of Nova Zembla, sets along this middle tract and bears away with it the volcanic debris. We know that the Arctic drift splits up into two branches, as it were, on coming across the northern shores of Spitzbergen: one branch, passing down to the south-westward and carrying along with it the mass of ice which hugs the eastern coast of Greenland, doubles Cape Farewell, and then streams up along the western shores of Greenland, — the other branch being traceable for several degrees to the southward and eastward of Spitzbergen, and then gradually lost in the fork of the Gulf Stream, the western arm of which ascends in a due northerly direction, so as to impinge against the southern portion of Spitzbergen, whilst the other arm, turning aside at nearly a right angle, assumes an easterly course.

That branch of the descending or Arctic drift which is traceable into the bifur cation of the ascending or Gulf Stream must find its way somehow to the Equator ; and, as a natural consequence, it follows the recognized practice of all cold currents when brought into contact with warmer ones, and thus travels below it to its destination. Continued in its original course, this current would traverse THE WESTMANN ISLANDS. 7 the middle space between the Faroes and Iceland ; and, as has been shown, if moving at no greater velocity than 600 yards (that is, about one-third of a mile) per hour, or half the speed at which we know the western superficial branch moves round Cape Farewell, it would be quite powerful enough, independently of the decrease in the specific gravity of particles of mineral matter owing to the conditions already discussed, to bear along those particles and thus to remove all trace of debris other than that reproduced by its own action.

By means of this current, the volcanic particles which, according to Captain Maury, strew the bed of the Mid-Atlantic, between the parallels of 47° and 52°, along no less than twenty-five degrees of longitude, are borne down from the Icelandic coasts. In the " Notes"* published by me immediately after my return from the cruise, I adverted to this as being the true source of the volcanic matters present in the latitudes referred to, and thus corroborated the shrewd suggestion of the late Professor Bailey. I think we are therefore warranted in assuming that a current having a moderate velocity, such as that referred to as being sufficient to account for the phenomena in question, does exist, and that it flows away in a south-westerly course, under the warmer waters of the ascending Gulf Stream, and gradually mingles with the general gathering of the polar waters around the Equator, — an additional proof of the correctness of this view being derived from the fact, fully borne out by various navigators, that about the 63rd parallel of latitude the tem peratures of the surface-water and that at a hundred fathoms' depth do not usually differ by more than three degrees — clearly indicating that, at one-sixth of the greatest recorded depth of water, the temperature of the Gulf Stream has not yet been materially diminished, and, inversely, that the cold drift is still too deep-seated to have been in operation at that distance from the surface.

July 10. — Strong head winds, cold drizzling fogs, or drenching rain, with a nasty chopping sea, have haunted us ever since we drew near to " The Inferno," Our course has been close to the northward of the Westmann Islands, a group of purely volcanic origin, and abounding in magnificently bold scenery. Most of the islands consist of trappean rock thrust up sheer from the sea to a height of several hundred feet. In one place the entire face of one of these huge masses has been rifted off and hurled forwards as it were, its angle of inclination being * " Notes on the Presence of Animal Life at vast Depths in the Sea." CHARACTER OF THE SEA-BED. 8 so great as to give it the appearance of being about to crash headlong into the waters beneath. In a second mass of nearly similar dimensions one half has become partially submerged, whilst the other defiantly stretches forth its rugged and perpendicular front to the waves that lash themselves into a frenzy in their effort to make it yield also.

On the land side, the mountain-chains, whenever it was possible to snatch a momentary glimpse of them by the uplifting of the clouds, presented a most weird appearance, and told of the terrific forces which were in operation at their upheaval. But Hecla, Eyefialla, Kotlugia, and Skaptar Jokul remained provokingly hidden from view ; and after straining my eyes for several hours, and vainly endeavouring to deceive myself into the belief that every towering cone whose summit was swathed in mist must be belching forth its sulphurous torrent, I was at last glad to beat a retreat, and go to my "Plutonic tallies " (as Captain Maury calls them) obtained from the regions below. Whilst the increase in depth of water, from the north-west angle of the Faroes, was singularly gradual and regular till we reached the vicinity of the 682 fathom point, from thence to the south-westerly part of Iceland the evidence of a more recent igneous-rock formation at once discloses itself in a series of alternating elevations and depressions.

Thus, at a distance of about forty miles to the westward we find 64 fathoms; then a plateau of nearly seventy miles diameter, on which the depth varies between 40 and 100 fathoms ; and lastly, another dip of 640 fathoms, which decreases to 445 fathoms at fifteen miles distance from the Icelandic coast. Now these alternations of level are by no means great; and, so far as the soundings show, there is no reason whatever why a telegraphic cable should not sink down into the position destined for it, even if run transversely across all these ridges and hollows. But this is only on the supposition that the depths indicated are really the greatest that exist, and that, along the intervals, other depressions and elevations, more or less sudden as the case may be, do not occur. If one can judge from the character of the islands we have passed today, namely the Westmanns, and from that of the mainland, so far as the mists have allowed us to catch a glimpse of it, it would seem highly probable that the alter nations are infinitely more frequent, and consequently that a survey of a sufficiently comprehensive kind to indicate the direction and extent of the valley lines is absolutely indispensable, if a cable is to be submerged in this direction ARRIVAL AT REKIAVIK. 9 with the slightest prospect of safety.

Wherever the submarine valleys happen to be narrow and irregular, no matter how slowly a cable may be paid out, festoons would form, the weight of which, acting on the points of contact, would inevitably engender a fatal strain. Whether the strata at the bottom be of the more recent or ancient igneous character, the danger of abrasive action would exist in an equal degree so long as the ridges supported the layer of emery-like deposit which prevails along the southern coast-line of the island ; and, as already stated, the only mode of counteracting this danger is to deposit a cable, not across the endless series of sharp ridges, but along the most suitable of the valleys protected by them. July 12. — Rekiavik. After rounding Rekianess the evening before last, in a stiff gale from the southward, and having seen quite as much as was desirable of the reef-bound coast that stretches for some distance to the east of that Cape, we dropped anchor yesterday morning at Rekiavik.

Whether owing to the still gloomy state of the weather, or a certain demure look inherent in the place, the first feeling engendered, on taking a survey of it from our anchorage, was one of unmingled disappointment. Instead of a picturesque town nestling, like a sea-bird, at the base of vast broken cliffs such as one might expect to come across in an intensely volcanic region, a range of straggling wooden houses extending along a low, somewhat broken slope, on which no trace of verdure was observable, with a murky background of mist solid enough to have concealed Paradise, was all that met our gaze. The peculiar summer (of 1860) had evidently " set in with its accustomed severity " in these, as in our own lower latitudes ; and it was not until a late hour in the evening that the sky cleared, and revealed the glorious amphitheatre by which Faxe fiord is surrounded.

During a few moments of sunshine, the effect was almost magical, — the distant snow-capped ranges of mountain, which shut out the horizon to the north-westward, being brought for ward with a distinctness not only of outline but of detail, that would have made them appear close to the eye, but for the multitude of intermediate peaks which glistened as if suddenly transformed into a tempest of adamant; whilst some sixty miles distant to the north-westward might be seen the gigantic cone of Snæfells, towering up from the sea in isolated grandeur. There is something singularly impressive in the knowledge that we are standing on the threshold of the mightiest convulsions the surface of our planet c ICELANDIC SCENERY. 10 has witnessed. Although fully alive to the fact that, throughout the globe, a mere crust intervenes between us and the vestiges of similar phenomena, it is not until our feet press the blistered lava-bed, and we actually see around us the vast blocks which once fell thundering into the positions they still occupy, that the mind wakes to a conception of the sublimity and grandeur of such a scene.

The whole of the south-western peninsula of Iceland presents the appearance of having been poured forth as a vast continuous lava-stream. Along the eastern boundary of this tract may be seen a number of well-defined cones, which consti tute the flank company of a series extending diagonally across to the north eastern extremity of the island. Those in the neighbourhood of Rekiavik, and stretching in a south-westerly direction down towards Rekianess, would seem to have been thrust up at a period anterior to the passage of the great lava-stream, inasmuch as they rise up suddenly from the general level, and thus indicate its gradual elevation around their bases. But at the present day there remains no direct evidence to show from whence the stream flowed. The distance of its central portion from the two great southern foci of convulsion, namely Hecla and Eyefialla, is about sixty miles.

It is nevertheless quite possible that it may have flowed from one of these, inasmuch as, during the eruption of Skaptar Jokul in 1783, two streams were given off, one of which extended to a distance of fifty miles, with a breadth varying from twelve to fifteen miles, and an average depth, where spread out on flat tracts, of 100 feet ; whilst the other reached to a distance of forty miles, with an average breadth of seven miles, and the same depth as the previously mentioned stream. But in some of the gorges, between the mountains through which these streams forced their way, they actually attained the enormous depth of upwards of 600 feet. The shore along the fiord near Rekiavik is composed entirely of huge scori aceous blocks of lava, the colours of which vary from a slaty blue, to purple, brick red, ancl black.

All are more or less spongy in their structure, and, except where they have been subjected to attrition within the tide-marks, ■ retain the sharp irregular emery-like surface so characteristic of the lavas and pumice masses. Even the small boulders and pieces of shingle along the water-line, which have been subject to long-continued violent attrition against each other, although rounded in outline, present the same peculiarity ; whilst the resultant OBSIDIAN, DUST. 11 sand consists of minute angular particles which never lose their primary keenness, under any amount of comminution. The same remark applies to the more glassy obsidian-like substance of which the soundings on the southern coast con sist. This deposit has been derived, in all probability, from the atmosphere during the eruptions ; and it is somewhat extraordinary that it should be almost entirely free from particles of true lava or pumice.

So far as the soundings have hitherto gone, this peculiarity is invariably observable. It would therefore appear that the clouds of volcanic dust with which the atmosphere is loaded, and which has been known to extend to the coasts of Norway, the Faroe Islands, and even Shetland, constitute the true basis of the molten mass of the volcano, the lavas and pumice being the overflowing scum that collects upon its upper surface. As far as I have been able to learn from persons who have travelled in the neighbourhood of the obsidian veins, these do not occur at great elevations on the sides of the volcanic cones, but appear suddenly and end as suddenly. Should this really prove to be the case, it would indicate that the streams of obsidian were poured out through lateral channels, situated below the level at which the fused mass within the body of the volcano assumes its frothy character.

Pent up as is the gaseous matter within the cellular cavities, under an incon ceivably vast pressure, it is easy to perceive that such portions as are thrown up from the mouths of the crater itself would be shivered into innumerable minute atoms on escaping into the atmosphere, and, in this state, be borne far and wide with its currents. Out of 25 soundings made up to this date, bottom has been brought up, in greater or smaller quantity, seventeen times. Of this number 10 soundings have been effected with the greased sinker, and 5 with the conical cup. I have devised, and submitted to Sir Leopold M'Clintock, a modification of the " Clams " which he described to me as having been employed by Sir John Ross many years ago. Instead of clams I have suggested cups, closing on hinged levers, and available with the hollow Brooke's sinkers supplied for use on board the 'Bulldog.' July 13. — Called on the leading residents at Rekiavik, and experienced from them the cordial hospitality for which they have always been remarkable.

The name of the ship seemed to afford the little community a standing joke as being peculiarly applicable to "John Boole." It is only to be hoped that their ideas c2 ERUPTION OF KOTLA. 12 of our refinement were not based on the grinning demon that passes muster as a figure-head, and vouches for our " fancy " habits by having its neck encircled with a huge saw-toothed collar. Dr. Hjalthelin, the chief surgeon of the settlement, whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making today, informs me that Kotla (the volcano which burst into action in the middle of May) is one of the largest in the island. For some weeks prior to the eruption, the wells and springs dried up and several shocks of earthquake were experienced. Towards the end of May, it cast forth vast masses of lava and ice, mixed. This is precisely what Sir Charles Lyell states might be expected to take place in the case of the Icelandic volcanos, the cones of which are more or less constantly covered with perpetual snow *, — his conclu sion being based on the discovery on Mount Etna, in 1828, by Signor Gemmel laro, of an extensive glacier over which had flowed the lava-current.