40 GUIDE TO ICELAND. chiefly of mountain masses varying in altitude from 2,000 to 3,500 feet, snow-covered for nine months out of the twelve. The island hoasts of four large lakes—the monarch is )Yingvalta- vatn, area about forty square miles—innumerable lakelets, and a number of rivers, the largest of which drain the more extensive of the glaciers. None of the rivers are navigable, hut for a mile or so at the mouth; although ‘ their magnitude, as well as the dimensions of their basins, are out of all normal proportion to the area of the island.’ The quantity of water in the rivers ‘ varies as rain falls or snow and ice melts.’ Those flowing southward from the Jolclar on the south coast, although of no great length, are the worst to ford or ferry, being liable in summer to the sudden downpour of vast floods of water from the glaciers. A glance at the map herewith will show the position and relative size of both lakes and rivers, equally as well as a written description here. Volcanoes.—In the right-hand upper corner of the map will he found a list of those of which mention is made in the Icelandic annals as having been witnessed in a state of activity in historical times, with the dates of the eruptions recorded. A glance over the body of the map will also show their sites; and as the chief ones will not only be noticed further on in this section, when treating of the geology of the island, but also briefly described in the route through that part of the country in which they are respectively located, there is no occasion to allude to them further here. To the foregoing very cursory topographical description of Ice- land, the author will only add that there are innumerable hot springs scattered over every part of the island ; and six solfatarar of considerable extent; the largest of which exist in the vicinity of Myvatn, in the N.E., and at Kr'isuv'ik, in the SAY. A few pages must now be devoted to what may be termed the island’s foundation. A great deal was written about the geology of Iceland by several early travellers who did not pene- trate the interior, whose dread deserts guarded the key to the formation of this interesting volcanic isle; and one ingenious but fallacious theory after another to account for its genesis was built up upon these very superficial geological examinations as a basis, by geologists who had never even set foot on the island. It was for a long time assumed that a fissure filled in with trachytic-lava bisected the island from S.W. to N.E., and that all the volcanic vents lay upon this fissure; but as the interior became better known to modern travellers, this theory was exploded, it

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