from London newspapers

“ FAMINE IN SCOTLAND.
Sir Thomas Dundas rose to state to the House, that he had the best authority for saying, that the most dreadful famine at present raged in the Shetland Islands, therefore he should move, "That a Committee be appointed to enquire into the distressed state of the inhabitants of the Shetland Islands, and the famine that at present rages there, and to make report of there same to the House." ”

“ It appears that history no where records a disaster more terrible."
St. James's Chronicle, 16-22 Aug 1783 Copenhagen, July 15. We have accounts from Iceland, that another island has appeared above the sea near to that which has lately emerged.
For some Time past we have had excessive hot Weather, and the Sky is constantly covered with a thick Fog, which, without totally intercepting the Sun, deprives us of its brightness. Far from moistening the Ground, this Fog dries up the Grass in the Fields, and the Leaves which drop off the Treees, most of which are now left bare. ”

“ Morning Herald and Daily Advertiser, 24 Aug 1784 Copenhagen, July 18.
By several vessels lately returned here from Iceland, we receive the most deplorable accounts of the melancholy situation to which the inhabitants are reduced. The disasters that country has undergone, are such that all hopes of a harvest are entirely at an end. the extremities of famine and distress are equally felt by the men and cattle, and a great number of both have fallen victims to their complicated miseries. ”

“ The accounts from Iceland are not very favourable. The volcanos have thrown out such quantities of sulphurous matter that the country around to a vast distance is burnt up, which has reduced many families to misery, whose stocks have died for want of food. ”

“ An aperture is formed, from which arises a very thick sulphureous smoke, which, with the subterraneous noise, which becomes every day more frightful, gives room to apprehend a new volcano: the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages, justly alarmed, are already making their escape. ”

“ Public Advertiser, 12 Oct 1784 Copenhagen, Sept. 25. By letters from Iceland we learn, that on the 14th and 15th of August several shocks of an earthquake were felt there, whereby thirty parcels of land situated in the districts of Olagivoilum and Skeidum, with the buildings thereon, in the possession of different persons, were ruined, and that several houses at Seissel were demolished. The letters add, that the subterraneous fire which had raged for some months in the Eastern part of the island appeared to be extinguished, though a thick smoke continued to issue from the earth ”

“ When we combine the time and circumstances of this phaenomenon with the late earthquakes in Calabria, in Germany, in Sweden, in Siberia, we readily have recourse to the same common cause, namely, that subterraneous fire which has lately spread terror over so great a part of the globe. ”