THE GEYSERS. 
129 
mites in such springs, or of having cooked their 
meat in a proportionably short space of time, 1 
do not doubt the fact, but I must be allowed to 
suspect that their victuals would not be dressed 
to my tasteX The next eruption of the Geyser, 
which took place at half past nine, was a very 
magnificent one, and preceded by more nu¬ 
merous shocks of the ground and subterraneous 
noises, than I had yet witnessed. The whole 
height to which the greatest jet reached, could 
not be so little as a hundred feet, it must be 
observed, however, that I had no instruments 
with me for measuring elevations, and therefore 
could only judge by my eye; Jacob and myself 
watching at the same time, and each giving his 
estimate. The difference between us was but 
trifling, and I always took the lowest calculation. 
My method was, to compare the height of the 
water with the diameter of the basin, which I 
knew to be fifty-one feet, and this jet was full 
twice that height. The width of the stream is not 
equally easily determined by the eye, on account 
of the steam and spmy that envelops it: in most 
instances, not more, probably, than eighteen or 
twenty feet of the surface of the water is cast 
into the air; but it occasionally happens, as was 
the case now, that the whole mass, nearly to the 
edge of the basin, is at once heaved up: all, how¬ 
ever, is not spouted to an equal height; for the 
K 
