THE GEYSERS. 125 
red earth, at the north end of the Geyser, in my 
way to the top of the mountain. Here and 
there a boiling spring was forcing its turbid and 
discolored waters through holes in the surface. 
Some were completely in the thick muddy state 
of a puddle, and were bubbling, as any glutinous 
substance would do over a fire. In many places 
was heard a rumbling noise like the subterra- 
neous boiling of water, although there was no 
orifice near, by which the fluid could make its 
escape. On these spots, which were so much 
heated by subterraneous streams that I could 
scarcely bear my hands upon the ground, I found 
a great profusion of Rlccia glauca *, growing in 
patches, and extending almost uninterruptedly 
over a space of ten or twelve feet in diameter. 
The soil for more than half way up the mountain 
was composed of a coarse reddish kind of earth, 
intermixed with some other of a dirty yellow 
color, with small intervals of hard rock, and 
with this terminated the highest of the hot 
springs, which, however, was but a feeble one. 
Thence to the summit the mountain was entirely 
* I think, but dare not trust too implicitly to my me¬ 
mory, that I saw abundance of it in fructification. I made 
no memorandum on this subject, and the specimens which 
were intended to enable me to answer this, as well as other 
questions relative to natural history, were all, unhappily, 
lost. 
