64± HOT SPRINGS; STEAM-JETS, 



this in the Lagoons of Tuscany, on the islands 

 of Ischia, Lipari and Pantellaria; at Baise; 

 at St. Germano, near Naples; in the famous 

 Solfatara of Puzzuoli, and in many other places 

 of similar character; at the Peak of Teneriffe; 

 on Jorullo in Mexico, on the island of Iceland 

 &c. There is no country in which springs of 

 boiling water and steam abound more than in 

 Iceland. They have been often examined and 

 described by naturalists; and only lately in the 

 most profound and complete manner by Bunsen. 

 The following account is chiefly extracted from his 

 treatise on this subject. 



Hot springs are found at many spots in the 

 neighbourhood of the volcanic rocks of Iceland, 

 often crowded together in great numbers. Here 

 are seen oval basins and great tanks, as it were, 

 made of siliceous tufa, from which the hot water 

 is quietly flowing : — There you find round shafts, 

 of wonderful regularity, from which it is spouting 

 up. Sometimes it shoots up in slender streams 

 from little crater-cones, and is dispersed in foam 

 and vapour. In many of the shafts the sound of 

 the boiling may be distinctly heard in the depths 

 below, without any water coming up ; from many 

 of them only a jet of steam gushes forth, often 

 with a mighty roar. 



The hot springs of Iceland are remarkable for 

 the quantity of silica they contain, and which they 



