126 SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



Mr. Baine, by a measurement of tiie depth, the breadth and 

 the velocity of the stream Honing from the 'ittit ( r, found 

 the quantity of water thrown up every minute by it to be 5f)O.(54 

 wine gallons, or 78.96 cubic feel. Mr. Wright and myself folio-, 

 the stream, to observe how far any matter continued lo b deposited 

 l)y the water. We found some little still deposited where it joined 

 the river, a quarter of a mile at Kast from its source. At that place 

 it retained the heat of 33 degrees by Fahrenheit'* thermometer. 



The vegetation on the banks of the stream, and in the pleasant 

 meadows through which it flows, is exceedingly luxuriant The 

 farmer and his people were at this time employed in cutting the hay 

 in them, which, though not. high, was thirk, and remarkabK 

 The plants which Mr. Wright found in the greatest perfection, were 

 the sedum acre*, the veronica becabunga I, the polygomun vivi- 

 parumj, and the coniaruni palustre |(. 



A little above, where the current from the little Geyzer falls into 

 the river, part of the lava, which has descended from the upper into 

 tiie lower plain, has assumed vloso to it> banks, for the space of 

 some yards, a regular columnar shape. The pillars are short, and 

 have live or six sides. I cannot be very exact in my account of 

 them, as they were on the opposite side of the river. I should 

 suppose they were nearly a foot and a half in diameter. Some were 

 horizontal, and others vertical. We observed the same appearance 

 in many of the tracts of lava we traversed on our journey, and, in 

 one or two instances, in those which had flowed from the sides of 

 Mount Hecla, though the pillars there were less perfectly defined. 



So many streams of hot water fall into the river, that it receives 

 from thence a very perceptible degree of heat. The thermometer, im 

 inersed in it above where it is joined by the waters of the little Geyzer, 

 rose to 67 degrees, while in the open air it stood at 6*0. The breadth 

 of the river in the same place is forty feet ; its mean depth two feet 

 and an half, and its course is rather rapid. Several kinds of fish 

 are found in it; in particular, numbers of very fine salmon. 



The village of Rykum or Ryka, called either indiscriminately 

 from Ruk, an Icelandic word, signifying smoke, is situated in the 

 middle of the valley, and, by an observation made by Mr. Baine, 



* Pepper-stone crop. Snake weed. 



t Brook lime. !| Purple marsquefoil. 



