144 An ACCOV^t of 



Above the great fpring, the hill terminates in a double 

 pointed rock, which Mr Baine found by meafurement to be 310 

 feet higher than the courfe of the river. The rock is fplit very 

 ftrangely into lamina, and at firft fight has much the appearance 

 of a fchiftus or bed of thick Hate. It confifts, however, of a 

 gray coloured ftone of a very clofe grain, the feparate pieces of 

 which, although divided as they lay, do not break in the hand 

 in any particular direction. I mould fuppofe the fubftance of 

 this rock to be chiefly argillaceous, and that, like every other 

 ftone in the ifland, it has fuffered fome change by the action 

 of fire. I do not mean to call it lava, as it bears no mark of 

 having been once in a melted ftate, whatever baking or indu- 

 ration it may have fuftained in the neighbourhood of fubterra- 

 ous heat. It contains no heterogeneous matter, or cavities, in 

 which agates, or zeolites, or vitrified fubftances of any kind, 

 could have been formed. 



All thefe rocks that have been either altered or created by 

 fire, feem much more liable to decay and decompofition than any 

 others I have ever feen. Mounds, fimilar to thofe in the valley 

 of Rykum, have been formed by the ruins of the hill half 

 way up its afcent between the Geyzer and the pointed rock. 

 Springs boil in many places through thefe mounds, and near to 

 one of them, I obferved that the coloured clay felt much more 

 foapy than any I had tried before. This quality probably was 

 owing to a greater proportion of the earth of magnefia in its 

 compofition, as in other refpects it agreed perfectly with the 

 reft. 



My attention, during the four days I remained in this place, 

 was fo much engaged by the beauties and remarkable cir^ 

 cumftances of the two principal fprings, that I cannot (were 

 I fo inclined) give you a minute account of thofe which, next 

 to them, were deferving of notice. The fprings in general re- 

 femble thofe at Rykum ; but there are five or fix which have 

 their peculiarities, and throw up their waters with violence to 



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