Chap. 7.] Hot Springs in Iceland. 505 



degree in the earth, without exhibiting to our af- 

 frighted fenfes the formidable phenomenon of a vol- 

 canic fire. 



It is, however, in volcanic regions, that tepid wa- 

 ters are found in the greateft quantity j and it is in 

 thefe that they difplay the moft finking phenomena. 

 At Laugervarm, a fmall lake, two days journey from 

 Mount Hecla, in Iceland, there are hot fpouting 

 fprings, one of which throws up a column of water 

 to the height of twenty-four feet. A piece of mutton 

 and fome falmon trout were almoft boiled to pieces, 

 in fix minutes, in one of thefe fprings. At Geyfer, 

 in the fame ifland, there are forty or fifty fpouting 

 fprings within the compafs of three miles ; in fome 

 the water is impregnated with clay, and white in its 

 appearance ; in fome, where it pafles through a fine 

 ochre, it is red as fcarlet ; in fome it fpouts forth in 

 a continued flream; in others, at intervals, like an 

 artificial jet d'eau. The largeft which Von Troil 

 obferved haq! an aperture nineteen feet in diameter, 

 through which the water fpouted, at intervals, nine or 

 ten times a day; round the top of it is a bafon, which, 

 together with the pipe, is in the form of a caldron ; 

 the margin of the bafon is nine feet higher than the 

 conduit, and its diameter fifty-fix feet. The water 

 was thrown up in an immenfe column, at different 

 times, to the height of from thirty to fixty feet, and 

 fit one time to the height of ninety-two feet. Pre- 

 vious to this explofion the earth began to tremble in 

 three different places, and a noife was heard like a 

 battery of cannon *. 



Another writer ftates, that at Geyfer, in Iceland, 

 there fprings up a hot water, which upon cooling, 



* Von Troll's Letters on Iceland. 



depofltS 



