I need not here enter into the history of the Krísuvík diggings since the date of Commander Commerell’s report, or during Mr Bushby’s concession. Suffice it to say that the concession has now been granted to Englishmen, and that Messrs Randall and Thorne, Curtis and Seymour, are the actual owners. Until 1873, I believe, nothing has been done in the working line—we shall hope to see more activity soon.
After expressing my surprise, as bound to do, at the smallness of the Krísuvík area, it is only fair to own that Commander Commerell’s third paragraph, if correct, is most hopeful. The supply which is puffed away in air can be controlled by walls and roofs, upon which the vapour would be deposited, and thus the period of renewal would probably be reduced from two or three years to the same number of months. As regards Dr W. Lauder Lindsay’s assertion that whilst crude Sicilian sulphur contains 80 to 90 per cent, of pure ore, and that of Krísuvík from 96·39 to 98·20, I am unable to pronounce judgment; but my suspicion is that severely picked specimens were used as averages.
Since my return from Iceland, Mr Charles W. Vincent, F.C.E., published in the Journal of the Society of Arts (January 17, 1873), a valuable paper “On the Sulphur Deposits of Krisuvik, Iceland.” It is here reprinted with his express permission: the importance of the subject will excuse its length, and the reader will exercise his undoubted right of “skipping.”
“The canton of Krisuvik, in the south-west corner of Iceland, has long attracted great interest, on account of its boiling mud caldrons, hot springs, and above all, its ‘living’ sulphur mines; these are all arranged in lines, evidently corresponding to the great volcanic diagonal line stretching from Cape Reykjanes to the Lake of Myvatn.[90] At the present time the greatest amount of volcanic activity is manifested at the southern end of this line.
“In the last century it was the northern end of the volcanic diagonal, near about Myvatn, where, according to the Icelandic records, the kind of pseudo-volcanic action was most vigorous, by which the boiling springs are set in operation and the sulphur deposits are formed; but a violent eruption of the mud volcano Krabla, to a great extent buried the then active strata beneath enormous masses of volcanic mud and ashes, so that the energy has been probably transferred along the line southwards.[91]
“The Krisuvik springs are in a valley beneath some high mountains. They are reached by a track, so narrow that there is no more than room to enable horses to pass along it—across the brink and along the side of a vast hollow, termed the ‘kettle.’ Following this rude track, the ‘Ketilstip,’ the summit of the range of hills, is reached which overlooks Krisuvik. In the midst of a green and extensive morass, interspersed with a few lakes, are caldrons of boiling mud, some of them fifteen feet in diameter, numberless jets of steam, and boiling mud issuing from the ground, in many instances to the height of six or eight feet. Sir George Mackenzie (who was accompanied by Sir Henry, then Doctor, Holland, now the President of the Royal Institution), in his justly-celebrated ‘Travels in Iceland, in 1810,’ gives a vivid word-picture of the scene. ‘It is impossible,’ he writes, ‘to convey adequate ideas of the wonders of its terrors. The sensation of a person, even of firm nerves, standing on a support which feebly sustains him, where literally fire and brimstone are in incessant action, having before his eyes tremendous proofs of what is going on beneath him, enveloped in thick vapours, his ears stunned with thundering noises—these can hardly be expressed in words, and can only be conceived by those who have experienced them.’[92]
“On the other side of the mountains subterranean heat is also manifested, and hot springs, accompanied by sulphur beds, are also found; but they have not been as thoroughly examined
THE KRISUVIK MINES