Iceland, pre-eminently the land of volcanic wonders, possesses in the Great Geysir the most remarkable intermittent fountain in the world. ‘At the foot of the Laugarfjall hill, in a green plain, through which several rivers meander like threads of silver, and where chains of dark- coloured mountains, overtopped here and there by distant snow-peaks, form a grand but melancholy picture, dense volumes of steam indicate from afar the site of a whole system of thermal springs congregated on a small piece of ground not exceeding twelve acres in extent. In any other spot the smallest of these boiling fountains would arrest the traveller’s attention, but here his whole mind is absorbed by the Great Geysir. In the course of countless ages, this monarch of springs has formed out of the silica which it deposits a mound which rises to about thirty feet above the general surface of the plain, and slopes on all sides, to the distance of a hundred feet or thereabouts, from the border of a large circular basin situated in its centre, and measuring about fifty-six feet in the greatest diameter and fifty-two feet in the narrowest. In the middle of this basin, forming as it were a gigantic funnel, there is a pipe or tube, which at its opening in the basin is eighteen or sixteen feet in diameter, but narrows considerably at a little distance from the mouth, and then appears to be not more than ten or twelve feet in diameter. It has been probed to a depth of seventy feet, but it is more than probable that hidden channels ramify further into the bowels of the earth. The sides of the tube are smoothly polished, and so hard that it is not possible to strike off a piece of it with a hammer. Generally the whole basin is found filled up to the brim with sea-green water as pure as crystal, and of a temperature of from 180° to 190°. Astonished at the placid tranquillity of the pool, the traveller can hardly believe that he is really standing on the brink of the far-famed Geysir; but suddenly a subterranean thunder is heard, the ground trembles under his feet, the water in the basin begins to simmer, and large bubbles of steam rise from the tube and burst on reaching the surface, throwing up small jets of spray to the height of several feet. Every instant he expects to witness the grand spectacle which has chiefly induced him to visit this northern land; but soon the basin becomes tranquil as before, and the dense vapours produced by the ebullition are wafted away by the breeze. These smaller eruptions are regularly repeated every eighty or ninety minutes, but frequently the traveller is obliged to wait a whole day or even longer before he sees the whole power of the Geysir. A detonation louder than usual precedes one of these grand eruptions; the water in the basin is violently agitated; the tube boils vehemently; and suddenly a magnificent column of water, clothed in vapour of a dazzling whiteness, shoots up into the