CATARACTS, AND INUNDATIONS^ 



steam rolling over each other as they ascended, in a manner inex- 

 pressibly beautiful, and through which, columns of water, shivering 

 into foam, darted in rapid succession to heights which, at the time, 

 we were little qualified to estimate. Indeed, the novelty and splen- 

 dour of such a scene had affected our imaginations so forcibly, that 

 we believed the extreme height of the jet to be much greater than it 

 was afterwards determined to be. In a subsequent eruption, Mr. 

 Baine ascertained, by means of a quadrant, the greatest elevation 

 to which the jets of water were thrown, to be $6 feet. 



Much of the water began to descend again at different heights 

 and was again projected by other columns, which met u as they 

 arose. At last, having filled the bason, it tvi'ed in great waves over 

 numberless rills, made its way down the sides of the mound. Much 

 was lost in vapour also, and still more fell to the ground in heavy 

 showers of spray. The intervals at which the several jets succeeded 

 each other, were too short for the eye to distinguish them. As 

 they rose out of the bason, they reflected by their density, the purest 

 and most brilliant blue. In certain shades, the colour was green 

 like that of the sea ; but in tlieir further ascent, ail distinction of 

 colour was lost, and the jets, broken into a thousand parts appeared 

 white as snow. Several of them were forced upwards perpendicu- 

 larly ; but many, receiving a slight inclination as they burst from 

 the bason, were projected in beautiful curves, and the spray which, 

 fell from them, caught by a succeeding jet, was hurried away still 

 higher than it had been perhaps before. 



The jets were made with inconceivable velocity, and those which 

 escaped uninterrupted terminated in sharp points, and lost them- 

 selves in the air. The eruption, changing its form at every instant* 

 and blending variously with the clouds of steam that surrounded it, 

 continued for ten or twelve minutes ; the water then subsided through 

 the pipe, and disappeared. 



The eruptions of the Geyzer succeed each other with some degree 

 of regularity, but they are not equally violent, or of equal duration. 

 Some lasted scarcely eight or ten, while others continued, with 

 unabated violence, fifteen or eighteen minutes. Between the great 

 eruptions, while the pipe and bason were filling, the water burst 

 several times into the air to a considerable height. These partial 

 jets, however, seldom exceeded a raiuate, a.nd sometimes not a le\y 

 seconds, in duration. 



