116 
THE GEYSERS. 
possible, after having read the admirable descrip- 
tions of the Geyser, given by the Archbishop Von 
Troil and Sir John Stanley*, and, especially, after 
having seen the engravings made from drawings 
taken by the last-mentioned gentleman, to mis¬ 
take it. A vast circular mound, (of a substance 
which, I believe, was first ascertained to be sili¬ 
ceous by Professor Bergman,) was elevated a con¬ 
siderable height above those that surrounded most 
of the other springs. It was of a brownish grey 
color, made rugged on its exterior, but more 
especially near the margin of the basin, by nu¬ 
merous hillocks of the same siliceous substance, 
varying in size, but generally about as large as 
a molehill, rough with minute tubercles, and 
covered all over with a most beautiful kind of 
efflorescence; so that the appearance of these 
hillocks has been aptly compared to that of the 
* I need scarcely refer my readers for a more full account 
of the Geyser than it is in my power to give, to the letters 
of Von Troil, who accompanied Sir Joseph Banks in his voy¬ 
age to Staffa and Iceland: the work is too well known to 
every one. The two excellent letters of Sir John Stanley on 
the hot springs near Rykum, and on those near Haukardal, 
are to be found in the third volume of the Transactions of 
the Society of Edinburgh. In the same volume, also, is to be 
met with a full account of the analysis of the water of the 
hot springs, by the late Dr. Black of Edinburgh. 
