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THE

YOUTHS' MAGAZINE;

OR

Evangelical Miscellany.

OCTOBER, 1833.

THE GEYSERS.

THE most enrapturing scene, in Iceland, that we beheld, was exhibited on the morning of the 30th of July, 1814. About ten minutes past five, we were roused by the roaring of Stockr, which blew up a great quantity of steam; and when my watch stood at the full quarter, a crash took place as if the earth had burst, which was instantaneously succeeded by jets of water and spray, rising in a perpendicular column to the height of sixty feet. As the sun happened to be behind a cloud, we had no expectation of witnessing any thing more sublime than we had already seen; but Stockr had not been in action above twenty minutes, when the Great Geyser, apparently jealous of her reputation, and indignant at our bestowing, so much of our time and applause on her rival, began to thunder tremendously, and emitted such quantities of water and steam, that we could not be satisfied with a distant view, but hastened to the mound with as much curiosity as if it had been the first eruption we had beheld. However, if she was more interesting in point of magnitude, VOL VI. 3rd. SERIES. D d

she gave the less satisfaction in point of duration, having again become tranquil in the course of five minutes; whereas, her less gaudy, but more steady companion, continued to play till within four minutes of six o'clock.

Our attention was so much taken up with these two principal fountains, that we had little time or inclination to watch the minutiæ of the numerous inferior shafts and cavities with which the tract abounds. The Little Geyser erupted perhaps twelve times in the twenty-four hours; but none of its jets rose higher than eighteen or twenty feet, and generally they were about ten or twelve. The pipe of this spring opens into a beautiful circular bason about twelve feet in diameter, the surface of which exhibits incrustations equally beautiful with those of the Great Geyser. At the depth of a few feet, the pipe, which is scarcely three feet wide, becomes very irregular; yet its depth has been ascertained to be thirty-eight feet. There is a large steam-hole at a short distance, to the north-west of the Little Geyser, which roars and becomes quiescent with the operations of that spring. A little further down the tract are numerous apertures, some of which are very large, and, being full of clear boiling water, they discover to the spectator the perilous scaffolding on which he stands. When approaching the brink of many of them, he walks over a dome of petrified morass, hardly a foot in thickness, below which is a vast boiling abyss, and even this thin dome is prevented from gaining ⚫ a due consistence, by the humidity and heat to which it is exposed. Near the centre of these holes is situated the Little Stockr, a wonderfully amusing little fountain, which darts its waters in numerous diagonal columns every quarter of an hour.

Nor is it in this direction alone that orifices and cavities abound. In a small gulley close to the Geyser, is a number of holes, with boiling water; to the south of which, rises a bank of ancient depositions, containing apertures of a much larger size than the rest. One of these is filled with beautifully clear water, and discovers to a great depth various groups of incrustations which are very tempting to the eye of the beholder. The depth of this reservoir is not less than fifty feet. On the brow of the hill, at the height of nearly two hundred feet above the level of the Great Geyser, are several holes of boiling clay; some of which produce sulphur, and the efflorescence of alum; and at the base of the hill, on the

opposite side, are not less than twenty springs, which prove that its foundations are entirely perforated with veins and cavities of hot water.

On my return this way from the north, about the middle of August, 1815, I again pitched my tent for two days, beside these celebrated fountains, and found their operations still more magnificent and interesting than they were the preceding year. The Great Geyser continued to erupt every six hours in a most imposing manner. In some of the eruptions, the jets seemed to be thrown much higher than any I observed last year, several of them reaching an elevation of not less than a hundred and fifty feet.

What rendered my second visit to the Geysers peculiarly interesting, was my discovery of the key to Stockr, by the application of which, I could make that beautiful spring play when I had a mind, and throw its water to nearly double the height observable in its natural eruptions. The morning after my arrival, I was awakened by its explosion about twenty minutes past four o'clock; and hastening to the crater, stood nearly half an hour contemplating its jet, and the steady and uninterrupted emission of the column of spray which followed, and which was projected at least a hundred feet into the air. After this, it gradually sunk into the pipe, as it had done the year before, and I did not expect to see another eruption till the following morning. However, about five o'clock in the afternoon, after a great quantity of the largest stones that could be found about the place had been thrown into the spring, I observed it begin to roar with more violence than usual; and, approaching the brink of the crater, I had scarcely time to look down to the surface of the water, which was greatly agitated, when the eruption commenced, and the boiling water rushed up in a moment, within an inch or two of my face, and continued its course with inconceivable velocity into the atmosphere. Having made a speedy retreat, I now took my station on the windward side, and was astonished to observe the elevation of the jets, some of them rising higher than two hundred feet; many of the fragments of stones were thrown much higher, and some of considerable size were raised to an invisible height. For some time, every succeeding jet seemed to surpass the preceding, till, the quantity of water in the subterraneous caverns being spent,

they gave place to the column of steam, which continued to rush up with a deafening roar for nearly an hour.

The periodical evacuation of Stockr having been deranged by this violent experiment, no symptoms whatever of a fresh eruption appeared the following morning. As I wished, however, to see it play once more before I bid an everlasting farewell to these wonders of nature, and, especially, being anxious to ascertain the reality of my supposed discovery, I got my servant to assist me, about eight o'clock, in casting all the loose stones we could find into the spring. We had not ceased five minutes, when the wished-for phenomena recommenced, and the jets were carried to a height little inferior to what they had gained the preceding evening. DR. HENDERSON.

It remains to notice the simple and ingenious way by which Mr. Lyell, in his "Principles of Geology," accounts for these grand operations of nature. He explains it by the following figure.

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Mr. Lyell adopts the general and highly probable supposition of a hollow cave, at a great depth beneath the earth, where water and steam collect, and where the free escape of the steam is prevented till it acquires sufficient force to discharge the water.Suppose water from the surface of the earth to penetrate into this cavity beneath, represented at the letters A D, by the cracks or

rents, F F; while, at the same time, steam, at an extremely high temperature, rises upwards through the cracks C C ;-when this steam reaches the cold water in the cavity, a portion of it is at first condensed into water, while it gradually raises the temperature of the water already in the cavity; till at last the lower part of the cavity is filled with boiling water, and the upper part with steam under high pressure. As the pressure of the steam increases, its expansive force becomes greater and greater, and at length it forces the boiling water up the fissure or pipe E B, and a considerable quantity runs over the rim of the basin. When the pressure on the steam in the upper part of the cavity A, is thus diminished, it expands till all the water D, is driven to E, the bottom of the pipe. When this happens, the steam rushes up with great velocity, as on the opening of the valve of a steam boiler. If the pipe be choked up artificially with stones, (as was done by Dr. Henderson) a great increase of heat must take place, for it is prevented from escaping in steam; so that the water is made to boil up in a few minutes, and this brings on an eruption.

Mr. Lyell applies the same principle,-the agency of steam upon melted lava accumulated in cavities in the bowels of the earth-to account for the eruptions of volcanoes, and, though not absolutely demonstrated, there is every presumption in favor of its probability.

LYDIA STURTEVANT; OR, THE FATAL RESOLUTION.

AN AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE.

By Rev. Eliakim Phelps, of America.

LYDIA STURTEVANT was the name of an amiable young lady of my acquaintance who died at the age of sixteen. She was the daughter of respectable and pious parents in one of the NewEngland states. On the cultivation of her mind considerable attention had been bestowed. Buoyant in spirit and beautiful in person, she was the pride of her parents, the ornament of her circle, and the admiration of all who knew her.

To what extent her mind had been imbued with religious truth in childhood, I have not been able fully to learn. It is certain that from her earliest years she had regarded religion with respect, and had entertained the expectation of becoming a Christian before she died. It is not known, however, that she was the subject of

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