“The night was dark, with heavy rain. Geyser (as he is emphatically called by the Icelanders) gave no sign.
“The first of July was warm and bright.
“There were several eruptions during the day, making me familiar with his operations, but there were none of them to any great height, lasting only for two or three minutes: the basin not quite emptied.
“Several eruptions of Strokkr were witnessed, two of them by giving him a dose of turf: the prescription discovered by Henderson. These were a series of violent explosions, without any warning; the first burst went up like a rocket fifty or sixty feet, followed in such quick succession lower and higher that frequently the ascending mass passed through the descending waters, falling outwards on all sides. During the ten minutes they lasted, a stream of boiling water was given off only inferior to that of the Great Geyser.
“The last shoot into the air was generally the highest.
“It is not quite safe to be near this fellow in his spasmodic pranks, but they cannot be looked upon without amazement. The action is altogether different from that of the orderly majestic movements of the great King of all the Geysers, with whom he has evidently no connection.
“In his normal state, eight feet down from his not very pretty mouth, the water in Strokkr is always in violent ebullition.
“The estimate we formed of the extreme height of the sheaves of water was above 100 feet. In order to assist in the computation, we had measured that distance to the ground where we stood. The more practised eyes of the naval officers agreed in this estimate.
“It was now eleven P.M.; the sky as clear as day.
“With the exception of my tent friend and a companion, who had gone to visit the Little Geyser, the rest of the party had left for the night.