HOT SPRINGS in ICELAND. 145 



a confiderable height. Their bafons are of irregular forms, 

 four, five or fix feet in diameter, and from fome of them the 

 water rufhes out in all directions, from others obliquely. The 

 eruptions are never of long duration, and the intervals are from 

 15 to 30 minutes. The periods of both were exceedingly va- 

 riable. One of the moft remarkable of thefe fprings threw 

 out a great quantity of water, and from its continual noife we 

 named it the Roaring Geyzer. The eruptions of this fountain 

 were incefTant. The water darted out with fury every four or 

 five minutes, and covered a great fpace of ground with the 

 matter it depofited. The jets were from thirty to forty feet. 

 in height. They were fhivered into the fined particles of 

 fpray, and furrounded by great clouds of (team. The fituation 

 of this fpring was eighty yards diftant from the Geyzer, on 

 the rife of the hill. 



I shall now, Sir, attempt fome defcription of this celebrated 

 fountain, diftinguifhed by the appellation of Geyzer alone, 

 from the pre-eminence it holds over all the natural phenomena 

 of this kind in Iceland. 



By a gradual depofition of the fubftances diflblved in its 

 water for a long fucceflion of years, perhaps for ages, a mound 

 of confiderable height has been formed, from the centre of 

 which the Geyzer iflues. It rifes through a perpendicular and 

 cylindrical pipe, or fhaft, feventy feet in depth, and eight feet 

 and a half in diameter, which opens into a bafon or funnel, 

 meafuring fifty-nine feet from one edge of it to the other. The 

 bafon is circular, and the fides of it, as well as thofe of the 

 pipe, are polifhed quite fmooth by the continual fri&ion of 

 the water, and they are both formed with fuch mathematical 

 truth, as to appear conftrudled by art. The declivity of the 

 mound begins immediately from the borders of the bafon. 

 The incruflations are in fome places worn fmooth by the over- 

 flowing of the water ; in moft, however, they rife in number- 

 lefs little tufts, which bear a refemblance to the heads of cau- 

 Vol. III. T . liflowers, 



