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696 VON ’TROIL’S LETTERS ON ICELAND,
boiling water from time to time gufhes forth ; and further on extends a marfh of about
half a mile in circumference, where are forty or fifty boiling fprings, from which a va-
pour afcends to a prodigious height.
In the midit of thefe is the greateft {pring gey/er, which deferves a more exact and
particular account. In travelling to the place, about a quarter of a mile from the Aver,
from which the ridge of rocks near it ftill divided us, we heard a loud roaring noife, like
the rufhing of a torrent, precipitating itfelf from ftupendous rocks. We afked our guide
what it meant? he anfwered, it was gey/er roaring ; and we foon faw with our naked
eyes what before appeared almoft incredible.
The depth of the opening or pipe from which the water gufhes cannot well be deter-
mined; for fometimes the water funk down feveral fathoms, and fome feconds paffed
before a {tone which was thrown into the aperture, reached the furface of the water.
The opening itfelf was perfectly round, and nineteen feet in diameter ; it ended above
in abafon which was fifty-nine feet in diameter ; both the pipe and the bafon were co-
vered with a rough ftalattic rind, which had been formed by the force of the water; the
uttermoft border of the bafon is nine feet and an inch higher than the pipe itfelf.
The water here fpouted feveral times a day, but always by ftarts, and after certain
intervals. The people who lived in the neighbourhood told us, that they rofe higher in
cold and bad weather than at other times; and Egbert Olafsen and feveral others affirm,
that it fpouted to the height of fixty fathoms. Moft probably they only gueffed by the
eye, and on that account their calculation may be a little extravagant; and indeed I
doubt that ever the water was thrown up fo high, though I am much inclined to believe,
that it fometimes mounts higher than when we obdferved it.
I will here infert an account, how high the water was thrown the day that we were
there, which I hope will not be difagreeable to you. We obferved the height thus :
every one in the company wrote down at each time that the water fpouted, how high it
appeared to him to be thrown, and we afterwards chofe themedium. The firft column
marks the fpoutings of the water, in the order in which they follow one another ; the
fecond, the time when thefe eftufions happened; the third, the height to which the
water rofe ; and the laft, how long each {pouting of water continued.
No. Time. Height. Duration.
1 At VI 42m. 30: feet om. Dot.
2. — 1 — 6 _ ° 20
2. Wi PG — 6 ) 10
ye etek ot — o 15
at A thE — 60 _ ° 6
6, os WAND 570) eam SO: — oO 30
7 — 29 — 18 — ° 40
8 — 36 —- . 12 _ ° 40
The pipe was now for the firft time full of water, which ran flowly into the bafon.
No. Time. Height. Duration.
oc Ait — 48 — I 10
10. bat 20 — 24 — I 00
XII 35 minutes we heard, as it were, three difcharges of a gun
under ground, which made it fhake, the water immedi-
ately flowed over, but funk again inftantly.
II 8 the water flowed over the border of the bafon.
II Ill
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