ICELAND. 



71 



osities of the country, but one of the wonders of the earth, as there is nothing 

 to compare to it in any other part of the world. 



At the foot of the Laugafjall hill, in a green plain, through which several 

 rivers meander like threads of silver, and where chains of dark-colored mount- 

 ains, overtopped here and there by distant snow-peaks, form a grand but mel- 

 ancholy panorama, dense volumes of steam indicate from afar the site of a 

 whole system of thermal springs congregated on a small piece of ground which 

 does not exceed twelve acres. In any other spot, the smallest of these boiling 

 fountains would arrest the traveller's attention, but here his whole mind i^ ab- 

 sorbed by the Great Geysir. In the course of countless ages this monarch of 

 springs has formed, out of the silica it deposits, a mound which rises to about 

 thirty feet above the general surface of the plain, and slopes on all sides to the 

 distance of a hundred feet or thereabouts from the border of a large circular 

 basin situated in its centre, and measuring about fifty-six feet in the greatest 

 diameter and fifty-two . feet in the narrowest. In the middle of this basin, 

 forming as it were a gigantic funnel, there is a pipe or tube, which at its open- 

 ing in the basin is eighteen or sixteen feet in diameter, but narrows consider- 

 ably at a little distance from the mouth, and then appears to be not more than 

 ten or twelve feet in diameter. It has been probed to a depth of seventy feet, 

 but it is more than probable that hidden channels ramify farther into the bow- 

 els of the earth. The sides of the tube are smoothly polished, and so hard that 

 it is not possible to strike off a piece of it with a hammer. 



Generally the whole basin is found filled up to the brim with sea-green wa- 

 ter as pure as crystal, and of a temperature of from 180° to 190°. Astonished 

 at the placid tranquillity of the pool, the traveller can hardly belieVe that he is 

 really standing on the brink of the far-famed Geysir ; but suddenly a subterra- 

 nean thunder is heard, the ground trembles under his feet, the water in the ba- 

 sin begins to simmer, and large bubbles of steam rise from the tube and burst 

 on reaching the sarface, throwing up small jets of spray to the height of sev- 

 eral feet. Every instant he expects to witness the grand spectacle which has 

 chiefly induced him to visit this northern land, but soon the basin becomes tran- 

 quil as before, and the dense vapors produced by the ebullition are wafted away 

 by the breeze. These smaller eruptions are regularly repeated every eighty or 

 ninety minutes, but frequently the traveller is obliged to wait a whole day, or 

 even longer, before he sees the whole power of the Geysir. A detonation loud- 

 er than usual precedes one of these grand eruptions ; the water in the basin is 

 violently agitated ; the tube boils vehemently ; and suddenly a magnificent col- 

 umn of water, clothed in vapor of a dazzling whiteness, shoots up into the 

 air with immense impetuosity and noise to the height of seventy or eighty 

 feet, and, radiating at its apex, showers water and steam in every direction. A 

 second eruption and a third rapidly follow, and after a few minutes the fairy 

 spectacle has passed away like a fantastic vision. The basin is now completely 

 dried up, and on looking down into the shaft, one is astonished to see the water 

 about six feet from the rim, and as tranquil as in an ordinary well. After 

 about thirty or forty minutes it again begins to rise, and after a few hours 

 reaches the brim of the basin, whence it flows down the slope of the mound 



