The rivers were flooded by the melting of ice
and snow which had accumulated on the mountain. The greatest mischief
wrought by these successive eruptions was the destruction of the
pasturages, which were for the most part covered with volcanic ashes.
Even where left exposed, the herbage acquired a poisonous taint which
proved fatal to the cattle, inducing among them a peculiar murrain.
Fortunately, owing to the nature of the district through which the lava
passed, there was on this occasion no loss of human life.
The Icelandic volcanoes are remarkable for the electric phenomena which
they produce in the atmosphere. Violent thunder-storms, with showers
of rain and hail, are frequent accompaniments of volcanic eruptions
everywhere; but owing to the coldness and dryness of the air into which
the vapors from the Icelandic volcanoes ascend, their condensation is so
sudden and violent that great quantities of electricity are developed.
Thunder-storms accompanied by the most vivid lightnings are the result.
Humboldt mentions in his "Cosmos" that, during an eruption of Kotlugja,
one of the southern Icelandic volcanoes, the lightning from the cloud of
volcanic vapor killed eleven horses and two men (Cosmos i. 223). Great
displays of the aurora borealis usually accompany the volcanic eruptions
of this island--doubtless resulting from the quantity of electricity
imparted to the higher atmosphere by the condensation of the ascending
vapors. On the 18th of August, 1783, while the great eruption of Skaptar
Jokull was in progress, an immense fire-ball passed over England and the
European continent as far as Rome.
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