HOW TO MAKE THE BEST OF IT. 
117 
the simmer; while up into the air above our heads 
rose a great column of vapour, looking as if it was 
going to turn into the Fisherman’s Genie. The ground 
about the brim was composed of layers of incrusted 
silica, like the outside of an oyster, sloping gently 
down on all sides from the edge of the basin. 
Having satisfied our curiosity with this cursory 
inspection of what we had come so far to see, hunger 
compelled us to look about with great anxiety for the 
cook; and you may fancy our delight at seeing that 
functionary in the very act of dishing up dinner on 
a neighbouring hillock. Sent forward at an early hour, 
under the chaperonage of a guide, he had arrived about 
two hours before us, and seizing with a general’s eye 
the key of the position, at once turned an idle babbling 
little Geysir into a camp-kettle, dug a bake-house in the 
hot soft clay, and improvising a kitchen-range at a 
neighbouring vent, had made himself completely master 
of the situation. It was about one o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing when we sat down to dinner, and as light as day. 
As the baggage-train with our tents and beds had 
not yet arrived, we fully appreciated our luck in being 
treated to so dry a night; and having eaten everything 
