1 8 4 RETURN FROM THE GEYSERS.
O
deserving of relief from travellers. I was
surprised and mortified to find that this
wretched being, who could scarcely crawl
along, but who kept company with us some
way on one of our relay horses, was not
able to eat a morsel of the ship-bread and
meat which I gave him; so accustomed had
he been to a milk and fish diet, and such a
stranger was he to a kind of food essentially
different both in flavor and hardness.
Our way lay over a great part of the same
morass that we had previously crossed in a
contrary direction after leaving the river
Brueraa, of which stream we again came in
sight during the course of this day’s journey.
We went only a little more circuitous route
to see the hot-spring of Reykum, which I
before mentioned, as visible to me at a distance.
It is, indeed, in its present state, but
little worthy of notice to any one, who had
witnessed the finer eruptions of the Geysers:
its water rises from a rugged aperture not
more than two feet in diameter, and is
thrown up to a height scarcely exceeding
six or seven feet, biit the spray is cast to a
considerably greater distance; the jets are
frequently repeated; and the eruptions are
attended with a loud and rumbling noise,
owing to the vast quantity of air which rises
at the same time with the water. Some stepping
stonesin the river lead to a more quiet,
but still hot, part of the channel, formed by
this spring, and afford a convenient station
for the people of the adjacent house, when they
cook their provisions or wash their clothes.
The inhabitants of this solitary dwelling,
which is at a distance of about thirty yards
from the fountain, assured me, that in the
winter, in very clear and frosty weather, the
height of the spout is sometimes so great,
that, if the wind lies in a favorable direction
for the purpose, the heated water and steam
are driven into their house, to such a degree
as to compel them to seek a temporary
residence elsewhere. Inconsiderable, however,
as I found this spring of Reykum, it,
nevertheless, with its accompaniments, forms
an object both beautiful and interesting, amid
the dreariness of .the surrounding scenery.
The grass, growing near its margin, was
longer and more luxuriant than almost any
I had seen in the country, and some little
rocky islands in the stream, a few yards
below the crater, were clothed with a rich