32 MEMOIR OF 



roaring ; and we soon saw with our naked eye* 

 what before seemed almost incredible. The 

 depth of the spring, or pipe from which the water 

 gushes, cannot well be determined ; for sometimes 

 the water sank down several fathoms, and some 

 seconds passed before a stone, which was thrown 

 into the aperture, reached the surface of the water. 

 The opening itself was perfectly round, and nine- 

 teen feet in diameter, and terminated in a basin 

 fifty-nine feet in diameter. Both the pipe and 

 the basin were covered with a rough stalactitic 

 rind, which had been formed by the force of the 

 water ; the outermost border of the basin is nine 

 feet and an inch higher than the pipe itself. The 

 water here spouted several times a-day, but 

 always by starts, and after certain intervals. The 

 people who lived in the neighbourhood told us that 

 they rose higher in cold and bad weather than at 

 other times, and Egbert Olafsen, and others, affirm 

 that it has spouted to the height of sixty fathoms. 

 Most probably, they guessed only by the eye, and 

 on that account their calculation may be a little 

 extravagant; and, indeed, it is to be doubted 

 whether the water was ever thrown up so high, 

 though, probably, it sometimes mounts higher 

 than when we observed it. The method we took 

 to observe the height was as follows. Every one 

 in company wrote down, at each time that the 

 water spouted, how high it appeared to him to be 



