THE GEYSERS. 
135 
half, an uninterrupted column of water was con¬ 
tinually spouted out to the elevation of one hun¬ 
dred and fifty feet, with but little variation, and in 
a body of seventeen feet in its widest diameter; 
and this was thrown up with such force and ra¬ 
pidity, that the column continued to nearly the 
very summit as compact in body and as regular in 
width and shape, as when it first issued from the 
pipe; a few feet only of the upper part breaking 
into spray, which was forced by a light wind on 
one side, so as to fall upon the ground at the dis¬ 
tance of some paces from the aperture. The 
breeze, also, at times, carried the immense vo¬ 
lumes of steam that accompanied the eruption 
to one side of the column of water, which was 
thus left open to full view, and we could clearly 
see its base partly surrounded by foam, caused 
by the column’s striking against a projecting 
piece of rock, near the mouth of the crater; but 
thence to the upper part, nothing broke the re¬ 
gularly perpendicular line of the sides of the 
water-spout, and the sun shining upon it ren¬ 
dered it in some points of view of a dazzling 
brightness. Standing with our backs to the sun, 
and looking into the mouth of the pipe, we en¬ 
joyed the sight of a most brilliant assemblage of 
all the colors of the rainbow, caused by the de¬ 
composition of the solar rays passing through 
the shower of drops that was falling between us 
