272 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



to the commencement of the pipe. The water, occasionally running over the edges of the 

 mound, has acted upon the surrounding peat, mosses, and grass, converting them into 

 stone, and furnishing fine specimens of petrifaction. 



Such is the Geyser when asleep ! The whole scene changes when it is in action, which 

 occurs at irregular intervals. Explosions in the bowels of the earth, like reports of 

 cannon, shake the ground, and warn the visitor to retire to a distance, for they announce 

 an eruption. The water in the basin becomes more and more agitated ; it boils furiously ; 

 and at last it is suddenly projected into the air, in a succession of jets, which are at first 

 inconsiderable, but become more powerful, till a magnificent column is sent up to a great 

 height, finishing the display, as though the Geyser, like a thing of life, summoned all her 

 power to dignify her retreat. This is the grandest part of the exhibition. The atmo- 

 sphere is filled with immense volumes of steam, rolling over each other as they ascend, 

 through which the columns of water, shivering into foam and spray, are seen spreading 

 in all directions. As the jets rise out of the basin, the water reflects the most beautiful 

 colours sometimes a pure and brilliant blue, or a bright sea green ; but, in its farther 

 ascent, all distinctness of colour is lost ; and the tops of the jets, receiving the rays of the 

 sun, are white as snow. It appears, from the observations of various visitors, that the 

 height o'f the jets is very irregular, and the power of the Geyser very unequal. In Olaf- 

 sen and Poveisen's time, the water was carried to the height of three hundred and sixty 

 feet! When seen by Von Troil, in 1772, it rose to ninety-two feet. Sir John Stanley 

 states the highest jet observed by his company, in 1789, to have been ninety-six feet. 

 Lieutenant Ohlsen, a Danish officer, in 1804, found by a quadrant that the highest jet 

 rose to two hundred and twelve feet. In 1809 Mr. Hooker mentions its rising to upwards 

 of a hundred feet ; and Sir George Mackenzie states ninety feet to have been the height 

 to which he saw the water thrownvin J810. 



The New Geyser is somewhat different in its external structure from the preceding 

 fountain, but its eruptions are marked with the same characteristic features. The name 

 of Stockr is applied to it by the Icelanders, signifying, to agitate originally the name of 

 a fountain close by, which, immediately after an earthquake in 1 789, became entirely 

 tranquil, when New Stockr began to erupt. Henderson witnessed the joint eruption of 

 both Geysers, of which he gives the following description : " About ten minutes past 

 five in the morning we were aroused by the roaring of Stockr, which blew up a great 

 quantity of steam ; and when my watch stood at the full quarter, a crash took place as if 

 the earth had burst, which was instantaneously succeeded by jets of water and spray, 

 rising in a perpendicular column to the height of sixty feet. As the sun happened to be 

 behind a cloud, we had no expectation of witnessing any thing more sublime than we had 

 already seen. But Stockr had not been in action above twenty minutes, when the Great 

 Geyser, apparently jealous of her reputation, and indignant at our bestowing so much of 

 our time and applause on her rival, began to thunder tremendously, and emitted such 

 quantities of water and steam, that we could not be satisfied with a distant view, but 

 hastened to the mound with as much curiosity as if it had been the first eruption we had 

 beheld. However, if she was more interesting in point of magnitude, she gave the less 

 satisfaction in point of duration, having again become tranquil in the course of five 

 minutes ; whereas her less gaudy but more steady companion continued to play till within 

 four minutes of six o'clock." Henderson mentions the singular fact, that by throwing a 

 great quantity of large stones into the pipe of Stockr, he could awaken the slumbering 

 giant, and bring on an eruption in a few minutes. It has been thought a remarkable cir- 

 cumstance, that the old Icelandic annals should be entirely silent respecting these marvels 

 of the island. An apparent allusion to them occurs in the ancient poem, the Vb'luspa, in 

 the Edda : 



