A considerable portion of this day’s ride was over a rolling country, somewhat resembling the foot-hills in certain parts of California. On the right was an extensive plain, generally barren, but showing occasional green patches; and on the left a rugged range of mountains, not very high, but strongly marked by volcanic signs. We passed several lonely little huts, the occupants of which rarely made their appearance. Sheep, goats, and sometimes horses, dotted the pasture-lands. There was not much vegetation of any kind save patches of grass and brushwood. A species of white moss covered the rocks in places, presenting the appearance of hoar-frost at a short distance.
CHAPTER L.
THE GEYSERS.
Upon turning the point of a hill where our trail was a little elevated above the great valley, Zöega called my attention to a column of vapor that seemed to rise out of the ground about ten miles distant. For all I could judge, it was smoke from some settler’s cabin situated in a hollow of the slope.
“What’s that, Zöega?” I asked.
“That’s the Geysers, sir,” he replied, as coolly as if it were the commonest thing in the world to see the famous Geysers of Iceland.
“The Geysers! That little thing the Geysers?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Dear me! who would ever have thought it?”