He is getting very impatient, and let
us hope they will soon come out and relieve him.
GEYSERS, AND HOW THEY WORK.
[Illustration: THE GRAND GEYSER OF ICELAND.]
Geysers, or fountains of hot water or mud, are found in several parts
of the world. Iceland possesses the grandest one, but in California
there are a great many of these natural hot fountains, most of which
throw forth mud as well as water. Some of the American Geysers are
terrible things to behold. They are generally found near each other,
in particular localities, and any one wandering about among them sees
in one place a great pool full of black bubbling contents, so hot that
an egg thrown in the spring will be boiled in a minute or two; there
he sees another spring throwing up boiling mud a few feet in the air;
there another one, quiet now, but which may at any time burst out and
send its hot contents high above the heads of the spectators; here a
great hole in the ground, out of which constantly issues a column of
steam, and everywhere are cracks and crevices in the earth, out of
which come little jets of steam, and which give the idea that it would
not require a very heavy blow to break in, at any point, the crust of
the earth, and let the adventurous traveller drop down into the
boiling mass below.
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