GEYSERS. 165 
In order to bring before the reader a general idea of the true relation 
of geyser vents to the surrounding topography and water courses of 
the districts, a brief description of the three great geyser regions of 
the world will be attempted. It has been my good fortune to have 
spent seven summers at the various geyser “basins” of the Yellow- 
stone in connection with my duties as assistant geologist on the U.S. 
Geological Survey party, under Arnold Hague. The other regions are 
familiar from a large series of excellent photographs as well as through 
the descriptions of friends and the writings of other visitors to those 
countries. 
THK ICELAND GEYSERS. 
Iceland is the birthplace of the word geyser. It has been called the 
land of frost and fire, and indeed in no place are the evidences, nay the 
very forces themselves, of frost and fire brought so forcibly in contrast. 
The island is eminently a volcanic region, a central table-land with 
sharp voleanic peaks, hooded with great Jékuls or glaciers, man- 
tled with perpetual snows, and surrounded by a more or less narrow 
strip of lowland bordering upon the sea. The evidences of internal 
fire are unmistakable. Hecla and other volcanoes are occasionally 
active, and the whole island is covered with lava poured out by the 
volcanoes, and the source of the heat supplying the geysers is unques- 
tioned. 
As would naturally be expected from the combination of water and 
fire, hot springs are abundant and ata few localities geysers are found. 
The most noteworthy of these is Haukadal, where The Geyser, Strokr, 
and a smaller geyser are found. This locality is about 70 miles 
from Reykiavik, the Iceland metropolis, and is only reached on horse- 
back over beds of clinkers and rough lava fields; a dreary ride so far 
as scenery goes, but of fresh novelty to visitors from warmer lands. 
The hot springs are clustered in an area of about 20 acres, at the base 
of a bill about an eighth of a mile long and 300 feet high, and at the 
edge of the marshy bottom that stretches out toward the Hvita River. 
The springs are really at the base of the seaward border of the high 
ground where the waters that have percolated through the tufas and 
porous lavas of the higher region would come to the surface. The two 
geysers, Strokr and The Geyser, issue from mounds of gray or white 
silica deposited by the hot waters, and the neighboring springs are sur- 
rounded by lesser areas of the same material, while on the hillside back 
of the springs the rock is decomposed by the steam of fumeroles. These 
two large spouters show two types of geysers. Strokr has a funnel-like 
pit 36 feet deep and 8 feet across, (see fig. 1, page 174,) expanding into 
a saucer-like basin. The tube is generally filled to within 6 feet of the 
top with clear water, which boils furiously, owing to the escape of great 
bubbles of steam coming from two openings in opposite sides of the 
