CXXXVill 
from it still rose in many places columns of smoke. It did not, I be- 
lieve, do much damage, but lava streams have at different times 
and places overflowed some of the richest farmsteads and most fertile 
pastures in Iceland. The Skapta Jokull lava in 1783, of which I have 
already spoken, formed two streams, each some forty-five miles long, 
seven to twelve miles broad, and varying in depth from ten feet to six 
hundred feet. The greatest depth was reached in the sunken river 
beds which the lava first filled. In this eruption alone, itis estimated 
that 1,300 men, 20,000 horses, 7,000 cattle, and 100,000 sheep were 
destroyed. Some who discussed the cause of the remarkable afterglow 
last year may not know that the same phenomenon followed the 
Skapta Jokull eruption ; was speculated upon by Benjamin Franklin, 
and alluded to by Cowper in the second book of the Task. 
Of the Geysirs, I can probably say little that will be new. They 
spring from a narrow table land, about three hundred yards in length, 
raised by a few feet above a green marshy plain. This plain is sepa- 
rated by a river from the sandy desert, on the north side of which 
stretched away the vast snow-covered range of the Lang Jokull. The 
scene would be utterly desolate but for a farm house nestling under 
the trap hills which rise behind the Geysers. 
The surface of the plateau is formed of reddish white thin layers 
of silica, deposited by the springs whose overflow of boiling water 
is running away in numerous tiny channels worn in the white flint 
floor. Although these springs number nearly one hundred, only three 
are active, the Great Geyser, the Strokr, and the Little Geyser. The 
Great Geyser has formed a shallow basin, about sixty feet in diameter, 
on the top of a coned mound. In the centre of the basin is a hole 
about ten feet across and eighty-three feet deep, in which the water 
is always bubbling, whilst frequently it rises a few feet, accompanied 
by a rumbling noise and a slight movement of the ground. I slept 
on the mound in the hope of seeing one of the great bursts, but was dis- 
appointed. Formerly they came every day or oftener, but now a week 
or fortnight will pass without one. I was awoke indeed about two 
a.m. by the swaying of the ground beneath me, and scrambled out of 
the low tent opening, only to see the water rising a few feet. It was 
uncanny enough ; the pale clear light over the snowy ranges and desert 
waste, the still, deathly solitude broken only by the intermittent throb- 
bings of the geyser and the continuous murmur of the overflow trickling 
down the tiny channels it had formed everywhere in the flint de- 
posits. The water in a great eruption is thrown up about two hundred 
feet. It is almost tasteless, and, eaperto crede, makes excellent choco- 
late and tea. An analysis shows that in every eleven parts of sub 
stance held in solution one-half is silica, about 4:90 soda and its com- 
punds, and the rest alumina. The Strokr is but a poor relation of the 
Great Geyser, a well hole six feet across perhaps, where some ten feet 
down the water can just be seen, always seething, groaning, and now 
and again rising some height up the funnel as if making up its mind 
for an outburst. It is easy enough to provoke one by throwing in a 
heap of turf. This we did, and whilst about twenty minutes after- 
wards I was bending over the water rising at every effort a. little 
higher and again falling, suddenly, with one vigorous protesting 
groan, up rose a column of dirty boiling water one hundred to one 
hundred and fifty feet, which I had barely time to escape by hard 
running. For about ten minutes one outburst succeeded another, each 
of lessening volume and height, until the Strokr had got rid of the 
meal we had given it, and contented itself with its accustomed per- 
petual motion and noisy accompaniment. 
The sulphur springs of Kriusivik are another witness to great heat 
force working close to the surface. These springs are not without 
a 
