4n ACCOUNT of HOT SPRINGS, &c. 139 
is over a flat country, which, although marfhy in feveral 
places, is not unpleafant to the eye, and abounds in excellent 
pafturage. 
Tue fteam afcending from the principal fprings during their 
eruptions, may be feen from a confiderable diftance. When 
the air is ftill, it rifes perpendicularly like a column to a great 
height; then fpreads itfelf into clouds, which roll in fucceffive 
maffes over each other, until they are loft in the atmofphere. 
We perceived one of thefe columns, when diftant fixteen miles 
at leaft, in a direct line from Haukadal. 
Tue fprings moftly rife in a plain, between a river that 
winds through it, and the bafe of a range of low hills. Many 
however break out from the fides of the hills, and fome very 
near their fummits. They are all contained, to the number of 
one hundred or more, within a circle of two miles. 
THE moft remarkable {pring rifes nearly in the midft of the 
other fprings, clofe to the hills. It is called Geyzer*; the 
name probably in the old Scandinavian language for a foun- 
tain, from the verb gey/a, fignifying to gu/b, or to rufh forth. 
The next moft remarkable fpring rifes at a diftance of one hun- 
dred and forty yards from it, on the fame line, at the foot of 
the hills. We called it the New Geyzer, on account of its ha- 
ving but lately played fo violently as at prefent. : 
THERE are others of confequence in the place, but none that 
approach to thefe in magnificence, or that, when compared 
with them, deferve much defcription. The generality of the 
fprings are in every ref{pect fimilar to thofe near Rykum ; boil- 
S 2 ing 
_ ___ fion of Iceland have always refided there ; but in future their refidence will be at Ry- 
___ kiavick, a town now building on the fouth-weft coaft of the ifland. The prefent Bifhop, 
however, the worthy and learned Mr Frvsen, has obtained the permiffion of continuing 
_ his refidence at Skalholt during the remainder of his life. 
* Three or four only of the principal fprings in Iceland are diftinguifhed by the 
name of Geyzer, and of all the {prings near Haukadal the greateft is alone called Gey- 
_ wer or Great Geyzer. 
