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All thofe waterworks that have been
contrived with fo much art, and at fq
enormous an expence, cannot by any
means be compared with thefe. Thoie
at Herrenhaufen throw up a iingle
column of ivater, of half a quarter
o f a yard in circumference, to the
height of about feventy feet ; thofe
on the Winterkailen, at Caifel, throw
it up, but in a much thinner column,
[ 30 feet ; and that at bt. Cloud,
which is thought the greateil amongil
all the French water-works, cails up
a thin column eighty feet into the
air : whilft fome fprings in Iceland
fpout columns of water, of feveral feet
in thicknefs, to the height of many fathoms
; and many aftirrn, of foveral
hundred feet.
But, without relying upon what has
been faid by others of thefe wonderful
phsenornena o f nature, 1 think myfelf
happy to have contemplated with
my own eyes the moil remarkable
o f thefe fprings, which has enabled
me tp give you an accurate account
o f it. I only beg leave to fay fomething
of them in general, before I
treat of that I particularly faw.
Theie fprings are o f unequal degrees
o f heat. From fome the water
flows gently as from other fprings,
and it is then called Imig, a bath ;
from others, it fpouts boiling water
with a great noife, and is then called
hver or kittel (kettle). Though the
degree of heat is unequal, yet I do
not 'remember ever to have obferved
it under 188 o f Fahrenheit’s thermometer.
At Laugarnas we found it at
188, 191, 193. At Geyfer, Reykum,
and Laugarvatn 212 ; and in the lail
place, in the ground, at a little hot
current of water, 213 degrees.
It is very common for fome o f the
fpouting fprings to ceafe, and others
to fpring up in their ftead ; there are
likewife frequent traces of former hvers,
where at prefent not a fingle dirop o f
water is to be feen. Many remember
to have feen inftances o f this ;
and Eggert Olafsen relates, that in
1753 a new hver broke forth at Rei-
kakiv, feven fathoms in breadth, and
three in depth, at the diftance of fifty
fathoms from an old fpring which had
4 been