HOT SPRINGS in ICELAND. 151 
with great rapidity. Whatever we threw into the well was 
hurled into the air with fuch fwiftnefs that the eye could {carce- 
ly difcern it *, and the divifion of the water at the extremity of 
the column was fo minute, that the fhowers of fpray which 
fell were cold. Towards the end of an eruption, when more 
_fteam than water rufhed from the pipe, I ventured to hold my 
hand near the edge of the column, in the way of fome of the 
divided particles of water, and found them tepid only. You 
may probably think this a rafh experiment, and certainly it 
was fo. But we had made our obfervations on the uniform di- 
reCtion of the column, and confided our fafety in it. Once or 
twice, however, we had reafon to think ourfélves more fortu- 
nate in efcaping, than prudent in avoiding, the danger which 
attended a too near approach to thefe eruptions of boiling wa- 
ter. During ten or fifteen minutes, the water continued to be 
thrown. upwards with undiminifhed impetuofity. At the end 
of that period, the quantity became lefs, and at length, ceafing 
entirely, fteam alone afcended. In one: inftance, the eruption 
continued thirty minutes. It feldom however exceeded twenty 
minutes, and fometimes was completed in fifteen minutes. The 
force with which the fteam rifes abates as the water finks in the: 
pipe, and when this is exhaufted, that foon difappears. 
I HAVE now, Sir, given you fuch a defcription of thefe ce- 
lebrated fountains as was in my power. I hope that it will af- 
ford you fome fatisfaction, and I could with that it might ferve 
as an inducement to fome curious enquirer into the hiftory of 
nature to vifit them, who fhall have all the knowledge requifite 
for making fuch obfervations as are yet to be defired concern- 
ing them. I cannot flatter myfelf, that the defcription I have 
attempted of their eruptions will imprefs you with a juft idea 
of their beauty.. Sources of comparifon are wanting, by which 
the: 
* Mr Baine meafured the height to which a ftone was thrown up by one of thefe. 
jets, and found it 129 feet. Some others rofe confiderably higher. 
