PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 275 



hundred and twenty-five feet. ' Geysirs ! Geysirs ! ' ex- 

 claimed one of us, and spurring our tired horses we were 

 soon gathered round an unexpected phenomenon, — a 

 perfect geysir. [Lantern shde shown.] It stands on a 

 mound thirty feet above the level of the surrounding 

 plain, its crater rising five or six feet higher. The aperture 

 through which the column of water is projected, is an 

 irregular oval, three feet broad by seven feet long. The 

 margin of sinter is curiously piled uj), the exterior crust 

 filled with little cavities or pockets full of water, some of 

 them containing oval pebbles of a briUiant white colour, 

 gathered round bits of wood and other nuclei. These 

 cavities are irregular in shape, with margins of sihca like 

 frosted silver, in meshes as dehcate as the finest lace. 

 Diminutive yellow columns rise from their depths, capped 

 with small tablets of rock, and resembling flowers growing 

 in the water. This geysir spouted at regular intervals 

 nine times during our stay, sending up a column of water 

 about six feet in diameter to a height of 100 to 150 feet, 

 and by a series of impulses holding it up steadily for the 

 space of a quarter of an hour, the great mass of water 

 falling directly back upon the crater, and flowing down the 

 side in large streams. Its eruptions occurred once an 

 hour, and from their extreme regularity we gave it the 

 name of ' Old Faithful.' " 



I can corroborate the above account in every particular. 

 Since September, 187 1, numbers of explorers and visitors 

 have been to see this geysir, and every hour of the day 

 and night (Sundays, I regret to say, not excepted) has 

 " Old Faithful" treated them to a splendid display. I 

 witnessed several of the eruptions, and I timed the 

 interval between them as 63 minutes, as nearly as possible. 

 This extreme and extraordinary regularity points, of 

 course, to a remarkable uniformity in the supply of water 

 to the subterranean boiler which is connected with the 

 geysir. The feed-water comes, no doubt, from a verv 



