THE SIXTH SECTION
[Sidenote: Monsterus. Frisius.] There be in this Iland mountaines lift vp to the skies, whose tops being white with perpetuall snowe, their roots boile with euerlasting fire. The first is towards the West, called Hecla: the other the mountaine of the crosse: and the third Helga. Item Zieglerus. The rocke or promontone of Hecla boileth with continuall fire. Item: Saxo. There is in this Iland also a mountaine, which resembling the starrie firmament, with perpetuall flashings of fire, continueth alwayes burning, by vncessant belching out of flames.
Munster and Frisius being about to report the woonders of Island doe presently stumble, as it were, vpon the thresholde, to the great inconuenience of them both. For that which they heere affirme of mount Hecla, although it hath some shew of trueth: notwithstanding concerning the other two mountaines, that they should burne with perpetuall fire, it is a manifest errour. For there are no such mountaines to be found in Island, nor yet any thing els (so farre foorth as wee can imagine) which might minister occasion of so great an errour vnto writers. Howbeit there was seene (yet very lately) in the yeere 1581 out of a certaine mountaine of South Island lying neere the Sea, and couered ouer with continuall snow and frost, a marueilous eruption of smoke and fire, casting vp abundance of stones and ashes. But this mountaine is farre from the other three, which the sayd authours doe mention. Howbeit, suppose that these things be true which they report of firie mountaines: is it possible therefore that they should seeme strange, or monstrous, whenas they proceed from naturall causes? What? Doe they any whit preuaile to establish that opinion concerning the hell of Island, which followeth next after in Munster, Ziegler, and Frisius? For my part, I thinke it no way tollerable, that men should abuse these, and the like miracles of nature, to auouch absurdities, or, that they should with a kinde of impietie woonder at them, as at matters impossible. As though in these kindes of inflammations, there did not concurre causes of sufficient force for the same purpose. There is in the rootes of these mountaines a matter most apt to be set on fire, comming so neere as it doeth to the nature of brimstone and pitch. There is ayer also which insinuating it selfe by passages, and holes, into the very bowels of the earth, doeth puffe vp the nourishment of so huge a fire, together with Salt-peter, by which puffing (as it were with certeine bellowes) a most ardent flame is kindled. [Sidenote: Three naturall causes of firie mountaines.] For, all these thus concurring fire hath those three things, which necessarily make it burne, that is to say, matter, motion, and force of making passage: matter which is fattie and moyst, and therefore nourisheth lasting flames: motion which the ayer doeth performe, being admitted into the caues of the earth: force of making passage, and that the inuincible might of fire it selfe (which can not be without inspiration of ayre, and can not but breake foorth with an incredible strength) doeth bring to passe: and so (euen as in vndermining trenches and engines or great warrelike ordinance, huge yron bullets are cast foorth with monstrous roaring, and cracking, by the force of kindled Brimstone, and Salt-peeter, whereof Gunne-powder is compounded) chingle and great stones being skorched in that fiery gulfe, as it were in a furnace, together with abundance of sande and ashes, are vomitted vp and discharged, and that for the most part not without an earthquake which, if it commeth from the depth of the earth, (being called by Possidonius, Succussio) it must either be either an opening or a quaking. Opening causeth the earth in some places to gape, and fall a sunder. By quaking the earth is heaued vp and swelleth, and sometimes (as Plinie saith) [Sidenote: Lib. 20. cap. 20.] casteth out huge heaps: such an earth-quake was the same which I euen now mentioned, which in the yere 1581 did so sore trouble the South shore of Island. And this kinde of earth-quake is most clearkely described by Pontanus in these verses:
The stirrng breath runnes on with stealing steppes,
vrged now vp, and now enforced downe:
For freedome eke tries all, it skips, it leaps,
to ridde it selfe from vncouth dungeon.
Then quakes the earth as it would burst anon,
The earth yquakes, and walled cities quiuer.
Strong quarries cracke, and stones from hilles doe shiuer.
I thought good to adde these things, not that I suppose any man to be ignorant thereof: but least other men should thinke that we are ignorant, and therefore that we will runne after their fables, which they do from hence establish. But yet there is somewhat more in these three famed mountaines of Island, which causeth the sayd writers not a little to woonder, namely whereas they say that their foundations are alwayes burning, and yet for all that, their toppes be neuer destitute of snowe. Howbeit, it beseemeth not the authority and learning of such great clearks to marueile at this, who can not but well know the flames of mount Aetna, which (according to Plinie) being full of snowe all Winter, notwithstanding (as the same man witnesseth) it doth alwayes burne. Wherefore, if we will giue credit vnto them, euen this mountaine also, sithens it is couered with snowe, and yet burneth, must be a prison of vncleane soules: which thing they haue not doubted to ascribe vnto Hecla, in regard of the frozen top, and the fine bottome. And it is no marueile that fire lurking so deepe in the roots of a mountaine, and neuer breaking forth except it be very seldome, should not be able continually to melt the snowe couering the toppe of the sayd mountaine. [Sidenote: Cardanus] For in Caira (or Capira) also, the highest toppes of the mountaine are sayd continually to be white with snowe: and those in Veragua likewise, which are fiue miles high, and neuer without snowe, being distant notwithstanding but onely 10 degrees from the equinoctiall. We haue heard that either of the forsayd Prouinces standeth neere vnto Paria. What, if in Teneriffa (which is one of the Canarie or fortunate Islands) the Pike [Footnote: The Peak.] so called, arising into the ayre, according to Munster, eight or nine Germaine miles in height, and continually flaming like Aetna: yet (as Benzo an Italian, and Historiographer of the West Indies witnesseth) is it not able to melt the girdle of snowe embracing the middest thereof. Which thing, what reason haue we more to admire in the mountaine of Hecla? And thus much briefly concerning firie mountaines.
Now that also is to be amended, whereas they write that these mountaines are lifted vp euen vnto the skies. For they haue no extraordinarie height beyond the other mountaines of Island, but especially that third mountaine, called by Munster Helga, and by vs Helgafel, that is the holy mount, standing iust by a monastery of the same name, being couered with snowe, vpon no part thereof in Summer time, neither deserueth it the name of an high mountaine, but rather of an humble hillocke, neuer yet as I sayd in the beginning of this section, so much as once suspected of burning. Neither yet ought perpetuall snowe to be ascribed to Hecla onely, or to a few others; for Island hath very many such snowy mountaines, all which the Cosmographer (who hath so extolled and admired these three) should not easily find out, and reckon vp in a whole yere. And that also is not to be omitted, that mount Hecla standeth not towards the West, as Munster and Ziegler haue noted, but betweene the South and the East: neither is it an headland, but rather a mid-land hill.
[Sidenote: The chronicles of Island.] Continueth alwayes burning &c. whosoeuer they be that haue ascribed vnto Hecla perpetuall belching out of flames, they are farre besides the marke: insomuch that as often as it hath bene enflamed, our countreymen haue recorded it in their yerely Chronicles for a rare accident: namely in the yeeres of Christ 1104, 1157, 1222, 1300, 1341, 1362, and 1389: For from that yeere we neuer heard of the burning of this mountaine vntill the yeere 1558, which was the last breaking foorth of fire in that mountaine. In the meane time I say not that is impossible, but that the bottome of the hill may inwardly breed and nourish flames, which at certaine seasons (as hath bene heretofore obserued) haue burst out, and perhaps may do the like hereafter. [Footnote: The surface of the country is very mountainous, but there are no definite ranges, the isolated volcanic masses being separated by elevated plateaux of greater or less size. The whole centre is, in fact, an almost continuous desert fringed by a belt of pasture land, lying along the coast and running up the valleys of several of the greater riuers. This desert is occupied partly by snow mountains and glaciers, partly by enormous lava streams, partly by undulating plains of black volcanic sand, shingle, and loose stones. This region is of course without verdure, and entirely uninhabited. The rocks are all of igneous origin, but of very different ages, traps, basalts, amygdaloids, tufas, ochres, and porous lavas. The number of active volcanoes is, at present, not great, but hot springs and mud volcanoes testify to the existence of volcanic action along a line running from the extreme south west at Cape Reykjanes to the north coast near Husavik. The only recent well ascertained eruptions have been from Hecla, Aotlugja, Skaptar Vokul, and (in 1874-5) from the mountains to the south-east of Myratu Lake. The eruption of Skaptar in 1783 is the greatest anywhere on record in respect of the quantity of lava and ashes ejected. Earthquakes are not unfrequent. The greatest mountain group is the Vatna or Klofa Yokul, on the south coast, a mass of snow and ice covering many hundred square miles, and sending down prodigious glaciers which almost reach the sea. From one of these a torrent issues, little more than a hundred yards long, and a mile and a half broad. The line of perpetual snow ranges from 2,000 to 3,000 feet. The loftiest summits of this great mountain mass have never been ascended, but the highest point is believed to be the Orefa Yolcal, 6,405 feet. The other considerable peaks in different parts of the island are Herdubreidr (an extinct volcano), 5,290 feet, Eyjafjalla Yokul, 5,579 feet, Snæfels Yokul, 5,965 feet, and Hecla, 5,095 feet.]
SECTIO SEPTIMA.
[Sidenote: Frisius. Munst.] Montis Heclæ flamma nec stuppam lucernarum luminibus aptissimam adurit, neque aqua extinguitur: Eóque impetu, quo apud nos machinis bellicis, globi eijciuntur, illinc lapides magni in aera emittuntur, ex frigoris & ignis & sulphuris commixtione. Is locus à quibusdam putatur carcer sordidarum animarum. Item Zieglerus. Is locos est carcer sordidarum animarum.
Nec stuppam adurit.) Vnde habeant Scriptores, non satis conijcitur. Hæc enim nostris hominibus prorsus ignota, nec hic vnquam, nisi prodidissent illi, audita fuissent. Nemo enim est apud nos tam temerariæ curiositatis, vt huius rei periculum, ardente monte, facere ansit, vel quod scire licuit, vnquam ausis fuerit. Quod tamen Munsterus asserit. Qui, inquit, naturam tanti incendij contemplari cupiunt, & ob id ad montem propius accedunt, eos vna aliqua vorago viuos absorbet &c. Quæ res, vt dixi, nostræ genti est ignota prorsus. Exstat tamen liber veteri Noruagorum lingua scriptus, in quo terrarum, aquarum, ignis, aëris, &c. miracula aliquot confusa reperias, pauca vera, plurima vana & falsa. Vnde facile apparet, à Sophis quibusdam, si dijs placet, in Papatu olim esse conscriptum: [Sidenote: Speculum Regale.] Speculum Regale nomen dederunt, propter vanissima mendacia, quibus totus, sed plærúmque sub religionis & pietatís prætextu (quo difficilius est fucum agnoscere) scatet speculum minimè regale, sed Anile & Irregulare. In hoc speculo figmenta quædam de Heclæ incendio, his quæ nunc tractamus non multum dissimilia, habentur, nullo experimento magis quàm hæc stabilita, ideóque explodenda.