CATAf ACTS, AND INUNDATIONS. 



scenes can be assisted. Nature no where offers objects bearing a 

 resemblance to them ; and art, even in constructing the water-work* 

 of Versailles, has produced nothing that can at al! illustrate the mag- 

 nificent appearances of the Gevzer. AH then that I hope for is, 

 to have said so much as may enable you to complete in your imagi- 

 nation, the picture which I have only sketched. Imagination alone 

 can supply the noise and motion which accompany such large bodies 

 of water bursting from their confinement ; and must be left to painfc 

 what I have not been able to describe, the brilliancy of colouring, 

 the purity of the spray, the quick change of effect, and the thou- 

 sand varieties of form into which the clouds of steam, filling the 

 atmosphere on every side, are rolled incessantly. 



I have avoided entering inlo any theory of the cause of these phe 

 nomena, that you may not suppose the account I give you has beeij 

 biassed by a favourite hypothesis. 1 have given you an accurate 

 state of facts, and I leave to you the explanation of them. Ther 

 cannot, however, be two opinions concerning the immediate cause 

 which forces the water upwards. It is obviously the elasticity of 

 steam endeavouring to free itself. In addition to this, the form of 

 the cylinder through which the \\ater rises, gives it that projectile 

 force which carries it so high. Beyond this, it would not become, 

 me to hazard any opinion. 



Of the antiquity of these springs I can say nothing further than 

 that they are mentioned as throwing up their waters to a great height 

 by Saxo Grammaticus, in the Preface to his History of Denmark, 

 which was written in the twelfth century; but from the general fea- 

 tures of the country, it is likely that they have existed a great 

 length of time. The operations of subterraneous heat seem indeed 

 to be of great antiquity in Iceland ; and the whole country probably 

 owes its existence to the fires which burn beneath its surface. Every 

 hill proves, at least, with what violence these fires have acted for 

 ages ; and the terrible eruption of lava which burst from the moun- 

 tains of Skaptefield in 178J, show that they are as yet far from being 

 extinguished. 



of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vvl. 3,] 



