HOT SPRINGS in ICELAND. 145 
a confiderable height. Their bafons are of irregular forms, 
four, five or fix feet in diameter, and from fome of them the 
water rufhes out in all directions, from others obliquely. The 
eruptions are never of long duration, and the intervals are from 
I5 to 30 minutes. ‘The periods of both were exceedingly va- 
riable.. One of the moft remarkable of thefe fprings threw 
out a great quantity of water, and from its continual noife we 
named it the Roaring Geyzer. The eruptions of this fountain — 
were inceflant. The water darted out with fury every four or. 
five minutes, and covered a great {pace of ground with the 
matter it depofited. The jets were from thirty to forty feet. : 
in height. They were fhivered into the fineft particles of 
fpray, and furrounded by great clouds of fteam. The fituation 
of this {pring was eighty yards diftant from the Geyzer, on © 
the rife of the hill. 
I sHALL now, Sir, attempt fome defcription of this celebrated 
fountain, diftinguifhed by the appellation of Geyzer alone, 
from the pre-eminence it holds over all the natural phenomena 
of this kind in Iceland. 
By a gradual depofition of the fubftances diffolved in its 
water for a long fucceflion of years, perhaps for ages, a mound 
of confiderable height has been formed, from the centre of 
which the Geyzer iffues. It rifes through a perpendicular and 
cylindrical pipe, or fhaft, feventy feet in depth, and eight feet 
anda half in diameter, which opens into a bafon or funnel, 
meafuring fifty-nine feet from one edge of it to the other. The 
bafon is circular, and the fides of it, as well as thofe of the 
pipe, are polifhed quite fmooth by the continual friction of 
the water, and they are both formed with fuch mathematical 
truth, as to appear conftructed by art. The declivity of the 
mound begins immediately from the borders of the bafon. 
The incruftations are in fome places worn fmooth by the over- 
flowing of the water; in moft, however, they rife in number- 
lefs little tufts, which bear a refemblance to the heads of cau- 
Vo. IIL. 4 gue liflowers, 
