The Icelanders are much more devoted to history and poetry than to exact science; and on this account the various eruptions of their volcanoes, and other remarkable natural phenomena, have received much less attention, and been recorded with far less accuracy and minuteness, than historical events. Owing to this, we have not as many records of their volcanoes, spouting springs, and submarine eruptions, as would be desirable. Had we a more extended series of facts, much that now seems irregular and mysterious, could be reduced to system.
CHAPTER XIII
I’ve traversed many a mountain strand,
Abroad and in my native land,
And it hath been my lot to tread,
Where safety more than pleasure led;
Thus many a waste I’ve wandered o’er,
Clomb many a crag, crossed many a moor;
But, by my halidome,
A scene so rude, so wild as this,