THE GEYSERS. 41 



longer than six or seven minutes at a time ; then the action of the central 

 pipe ceases, dense steam covers for a while the basin, and when that 

 moves off, nothing is seen but a sheet of clear hot water, and all is quiet, 

 until after an interval of some hours faint reports announce the approach 

 of a fresh eruption. In August 1815, its eruption occurred pretty 

 regularly every six hours, and some of the columns of water rose to the 

 height of one hundred and fifty feet. Earthquakes, by intercepting the 

 subterranean currents of waters, or by opening new channels, and giving 

 other directions to those waters, by disrupting the earth, here, or by 

 filling up former crevices these, and by other processes, not easily 

 detected, exercise an immediate and great influence over these fountains. 

 During the dreadful earthquake that shook the island to its very centre 

 in 1784, not only did the greater geysers shoot up with increased 

 violence, but no fewer than thirty-five new boiling fountains made their 

 appearance; many of these have since wholly subsided. There is 

 one of these geysers, which is called " the Strockr," and D. Hen- 

 derson says, that he discovered the key to its action, and by which 

 he tnought he could make it play whenever he had inclination 

 to do so. He threw in a quantity of the largest stones which he could 

 collect; presently it began to roar he advanced his head, to look down 

 the pipe or funnel, but had scarcely time to withdraw it, when the 

 fountain shot up the jets of boiling water, carrying the stones with them, 

 and attaining a height, which he calculated at two hundred feet. Jets 

 surpassed jets, until the water in the subterranean cavern being spent, 

 only columns of steam were emitted, and these continued to rise and to 

 roar for nearly an hour. The next day he repeated the experiment, with 

 the like success ; and leaving the spot to go on his journey, he says, that 

 he often looked back on the thundering column of steam, and reflected 

 with amazement at his having given such an impulse to a body which 

 no power on earth could control. 



From the quantity of vapour emitted from these numerous vents, it 

 often happens that the steam unites, and, forming a vast cloud, ascends, 

 rolls and spreads itself, till it completely covers the confined horizon, 

 and eclipses the mid-day sun. The effect produced by the reports and 

 loud roaring of these fountains during the stillness of the night, is 

 described as being peculiarly impressive. On the brow of the neigh- 

 bouring hill, nearly two hundred feet above the level of the great geyser, 

 there are several holes of boiling clay, some of which produce sulphur and 

 efflorescence of alum. On the reverse of the same hill, and at its base, 

 are more than twenty other hot-springs. Near Rey Kium, there are some 



