122 
THE GEYSERS. 
out, which was much less than the former, and 
scarcely at the interval of two minutes from the 
first, the water sunk rapidly in the basin, with a 
rushing noise, and nothing was to be seen but 
the column of steam, which had been continually 
increasing' from the commencement of the erup¬ 
tion, and was now ascending perpendicularly to 
an amazing height, as there was scarcely any 
wind, expanding in bulk as it rose, but decreas¬ 
ing in density, till the upper part of the column 
gradually lost itself in the surrounding atmos¬ 
phere. I could now walk in the basin to the 
margin of the pipe, down which the water had 
sunk about ten feet, but it still boiled, and every 
now and then furiously, and with a great noise, 
rose a few feet higher in the pipe, then again 
subsided, and remained for a short time quiet. 
This continued to be the case for some hours. 
I measured the pipe, and found it to be exactly 
seventeen feet over, and, as I have before men¬ 
tioned, situated in the very centre of the basin, 
which was fifty-one feet in diameter. The pipe 
opens into the basin with a widened mouth, and 
then gradually contracts for about two or three 
really were. He begged me, on my return, to make Doctor 
Adam acquainted with the incorrectness of his remarks upon 
Iceland, that they might be altered in a future edition of 
his work.—-But the time is past5 for the worthy Doctor is 
dead: “ requiescat in pace.” 
