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resembling the capital of a Gothic

ACCOUNT OF THE GEYSERS. By column We were so rapacious

Sir G. Mackenzie.

We were occupied this morning in examining the environs of the Geysers; and at every step received some new gratification. Following the channel which has been formed by the water cscaping from the great bason during the eruptions, we found some beautiful and delicate petrifactions. The leaves of birch and willow were seen converted into white stone, and in the most perfect state of preservation; every minute fibre being entire. Grass and rushes were in the same state, and also thasses of peat. In order to preserve specimens so rare and elegant, we brought away large masses, and broke them up after our return to Britain; by which means we have formed very rich collections; though many fine specimens were destroyed in carrying them to Reikiavik. On the outside of the mount of the Geyser, the depositions, owing to the splashing of the water, are rough, and have been justly compared to the heads of cauliflowers. They are of a yellowish brown colour, and are arranged round the mount some what like a circular flight of steps. The inside of the bason is comparatively smooth; and the matter forming it is more compact and dense than the exterior crust; and, when polished, is not devoid of beauty, being of a grey colour, mottled with black and white spots and streaks. The white incrustation formed by the water of the beautiful cavity before described, had taken a very curious form at the edge of the water, very much

here, that I believe we did not leave a single specimen which we could reach; and even scalded our fingers in our eagerness to obtain them. We found the process of petrifaction in all its stages; and procured some specimens in which the grass was yet alive and fresh, while the deposition of the silicious matter was going on around it. These were found in places at a little distance from the cavity, where the water running from it had become cold.

About a hundred yards from the Great Geyser towards the north, in the cleft where the disruption already mentioned had taken place, and which has probably been formed by an earthquake, are banks of clay, in which there are several small basons full of boiling mud. The mud is thin, and tastes strongly of sulphate of alumina, of which we observed many films attached to the clay, which seems to have been forced up from below, through fissures in the ancient incrustations. clay contains also iron pyrites; the decomposition of which has given it very rich colours. Almost directly above this place, under the rock at the top of the hill, are several orifices, from which steam rushes; and there are some slight appearances of sulphur. Almost the whole of this side of the hill is composed of incrustations and clay.

The

The depositions of the present and former springs are visible to a great extent, about half a mile in every direction; and, from their great thickness in many places, it is probable that they are spread

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under the surface now covered with grass and water, to a very considerable distance. About half a mile up the rivulet, in the direction of Haukardal, where there is a church, another hot spring appears, which deposits siliceous matter. From thence we obtained one of the most curious specimens we collected; it almost perfectly resembles opal. I mention the situation of this spring to shew the probability that the extent of the matter, which may for ages have been collecting, is very great; and its depth, from what is seen in the cleft near the Geyser, where it is visible to the thickness of ten or twelve feet, is probably also very considerable.

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It is somewhat curious, that no particular notice has been taken by the early Icelandic authors of this, the most remarkable spot in all the island. Though hot springs are without number, and occur in every part of the country, and may be regarded with indifference, yet the Geysers must have been remarkable at all times; for the extent of the old incrustations shews them to have been deposited by springs of no ordinary dimensions. They are, it is true, on the verge of that vast district of uninhabited and desolate country which forms the interior of Iceland. In look ing around as we approached the place, nothing was seen but rugged mountains, far extended swamps, and frightful Jokuls rearing their frozen summits to the sky. Nothing in this direction seemed to invite the curiosity or enterprize of people, already accustomed to the horrors of volcanic eruptions, and fully aware that their only sure subsistence was to be derived

from the sea. The indifferent and casual manner in which the Geysers are mentioned by Arngrim Jonas, shews this want of curiosity even among the learned of the Icelanders. He speaks of some great springs near Haukardal, to the north of Skalholt, which he had never himself seen, but of which he had heard that they deposited incrustations, and changed vegetable matter into stone. At the present day, the number of the natives who have visited these springs is comparatively very small; and, by those who live near them, their extraordinary operations-constantly going on, are regarded with the same eye as the most common and indifferent appearances of nature. Towards the north-east, and east, the country is low; the only elevated ground that appears towards the south-east being the summits of Hekla, and Eyafialla Jokul. Several jokuls break the view towards the north; and we remarked one mountain which had several rugged and peaked summits soaring to a great elevation.

However strongly the feelings excited by the productions of the springs, and by the appearance of the surrounding country, were impressed upon us, we often turned anxiously, towards the Geysers, longing for a repetition of their wonderful operations. To them all our wishes and hopes were directed; and we felt as if our eyes could never tire of beholding, nor our minds weary of contemplating them. The descriptions we had read, and the ideas we had formed of their grandeur, were all lost in the amazement excited on their being actually before us; and, though I may perhaps raise their 2 K 2 attributes

attributes in the estimation of the reader, I am satisfied that I cannot convey the slightest idea of the mingled raptures of wonder, admiration, and terror, with which our breasts were filled; nor do I fear that any conception which may arise of the astonishing effect of the Geysers, will leave the traveller disappointed, who trusts himself to the tempestuous ocean, and braves fatigue, in order to visit what must be reckoned among the greatest wonders of the world.

After yielding a little to impatience, we were gratified by symptoms of commotion in the Great Geyser. At three minutes before two o'clock, we again heard subterraneous discharges, and the water flowed over the edge of the bason; but no jet took place. The same happened at twenty five minutes past five o'clock, and at five minutes before seven. At thirtyfive minutes past eight, it boiled over again, and immediately the new Geyser began to play, and continued till a quarter past nine. This Geyser gives no warning before it spouts, and it is therefore necessary to be cautious in looking down the pipe, unless it is known what time has elapsed since the preceding jet. While the spray and vapour are rushing out, one may approach with perfect safety, and stand quite close to the very brink of the pipe on the windward side. The pipe is nine feet in diameter, not perfectly round, and rough and uneven within.

Having been busily engaged in packing our specimens, and being somewhat tired, we went to sleep a little earlier than usual. We lay with our clothes on, separated from the ground bysheep-skins and a rug,

in order that we might start up at a moment's notice. Mr. Fell and Mr. Floed had left us to return to Reikiavik; and we had soon cause to regret that they had departed before the next eruption of the Great Geyser took place. On lying down, we could not sleep more than a minute or two at a time; our anxiety causing us of ten to raise our heads to listen. At last the joyful sound struck my ears; and I started up with a shout, at the same moment when our guides, who were sleeping in their Iceland tent at a short dis tance opposite to us, jumped up in their shirts, and hallooed to us. In an instant we were within sight of the Geyser; the discharges continuing, being more frequent and louder than before, and resembling the distant firing of artillery from a ship at sea. This happened at half past eleven o'clock; at which time, though the sky was cloudy, the light was more than sufficient for shewing the Geyser; but it was of that degree of faintness which rendered a gloomy country still more dismal. Such a midnight scene as was now before us, can seldom be witnessed. Here description fails altogether. The Geyser did not disappoint us, and seemed as if it was exerting itself to exhibit all its glory on the eve of our departure. It raged fu riously, and threw up a succession of magnificent jets, the highest of which was at least ninety feet. At this time I took the sketch from which the engraving is made: but no drawing, no engraving, can possibly convey any idea of the noise and velocity of the jets, nor of the swift rolling of the clouds of vapour, which were hurled, one

over

over another, with amazing rapidity.

After this great exertion the water, as before, sunk into the pipe, leaving the bason empty. At seven minutes before seven o'clock on Sunday morning, the Geyser boiled over; and again at twenty minutes past nine; and this was the last time we saw it in motion.

At thirty-two minutes past nine, the new Geyser began its operations by throwing the water out of the pipe at three or four short jets, and then some longer ones. As soon as the bulk of the water was thrown out, the steam rushed up with amazing force, and a loud thundering noise, tossing the water frequently to a height of at least seventy feet. So very great was the force of the steam, that although a brisk gale of wind was blowing against it, the column of vapour remained as perpendicular as it is represented in the engraving. It proceeded in this magnificent play for more than half an hour, during which time I had an opportunity of taking a correct sketch of this beautiful Geyser. A

light shower fell from the vapour, which has been attempted to be expressed; but the imitation is very far short of the fine effect it produced. Sir John Stanley saw it throw up water to the height of one hundred and thirty-two feet. When stones are dropped into the pipe while the steam is rushing out, they are immediately thrown up, and are commonly broken into fragments, some of which are projected to an astonishing height.

This Geyser, we were told, had formerly been a comparatively insignificant spring like many which we saw around. There is no bason round the pipe, but there are some remains of incrustations on its brink, similar to those round several of the smaller springs. The water constantly boils violently, about twenty feet below the mouth of the pipe; but no subterraneous discharges take place to announce its operations; and this circumstance seems to render a different theory from that of the great Geyser, necessary for explaining the phenomena.

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USEFUL.

PROJECTS AND IMPROVEMENTS.

DRAINAGE OF THE BOGS IN

ONE

IRELAND.

NE of the grandest and most useful projects that has been lately adopted in the British empire is the reclaiming of the bogs in Ireland. Commissioners having been appointed in Ireland for the purpose of inquiring into the practicability of this scheme, the first report on the subject was delivered to the House of Commons in the summer of 1810, from which the following particulars concerning the nature and extent of those morasses are extracted.

"An object, on the due attain ment of which depended in a great degree the success of our undertaking, was the proper division of the bogs of Ireland into the districts referred to in the first article of the instructions; and further, to determine in what part we should first apply those means intrusted to us, and which we at once per ceived were utterly inadequate to the execution of any plan that should embrace the entire extent of Ireland.

From inspection of the map executed by General Vallancey, we

were enabled to consider these bogs as forming one connected whole, and to come to the general.conclusion, that a portion of Ireland, of little more than one fourth of its entire superficial extent, and included between a line drawn from Wicklow-head to Galway, and another drawn from Howth head to Sligo, comprizes within it about six sevenths of the bogs in the island, exclusive of mere mountain. bogs and bogs of less extent than 500 acres; in its form resembling a broad belt drawn across the centre of Ireland, with its narrowest end nearest to the capital, and gradually extending in breadth as it approaches to the western ocean. This great division of the island extending from east to west, is traversed by the Shannon from north to South, and is thus divided into two parts; of these, the divi sion to the westward of the river contains more than double the extent of the bogs which are to be found in the division to the eastward; so that if we suppose the whole of the bogs of Ireland (exclusive of mere mountain-bog, and of bogs under 500 acres) to be divided into twenty parts, we shall

find

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