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a pot of water placed over the opeilinq
boils in a very ihort time. We met with
fpouting fprings at Krufevik in Gulh
bringe Syffel, the hver Eine, the hvers
at Reikianas, and feveral at Laugarnas
in Kiofar Syifeh
From this lift, that, however, is
far from containing all the warm
fprings ill Iceland, you may judge,
Sir, of the prodigious number that
we met with. Near moft of them
are warm baths, each whereof merit
a particular examination and defcription.
Eggert Olafsen and Biarne
Paulfen have made very curious obfervations
on feveral of them ; but I
onlv be«O- leave to mention fome which
I made at Geyfer, where is the largeft
of all the fpouting fprings in Iceland,
or perhaps in tiie known world. Thefe
obfervations were made the 21ft of
September 1772, from fix o’clock in
the morning till feven at night.
Among the hot fprings in Iceland,
feveral o f which bear the name of
geyfer, there are none that can be
compared with that I am going
to
to defcribe, though the beft defcription
will fall very iliort o f it. It is about
two days journey from Heckla, not
far from Skallholt, near a farm called
Haukadal. Here a poet would have
an opportunity o f painting a picture
of whatever Nature has o f beautiful and
terrible united, by delineating one o f
its moil uncommon pliasnomena : it
would be a fubjefl worthy the pen of a
Thompfon to trailfport the reader, by
poetical imagery, to the fpot that is
here prefented to the eye, Figure to
yourfelf a large field, where you fee 011
one fide, at a great diftance, high
inouiilaiiis covered with ice, whofe
ummits are generally wrapped in
clouds, ib that their fliarp unequal
points became invifible. This lofs,
however, is conipenfated by a certain
wind, that cauies the clouds to fink,
and cover the mountain itfelf, when
its ilimnftt appears as it were to reft
upon the clouds. On the other fide,
Heckla is feen, with its tliree points
covered with ice, rifing above the
clouds, and, with the imoke which af-
pends from it, forming other clouds at
H fome