a few steps. But it was a false alarm. Nothing came of
it. The heaving mass seemed to be producing the desired effect,
however. The Strokhr was evidently getting very sick. I looked over
once more. All below was a rumbling, tumbling black mass, dashing over
and over against the sides of the churn. Soon a threatening roar not
to be mistaken startled me. "Look out, sir!" shouted Zoega; "look
out!" Unlike the Frenchman who looked out when he should have looked
in, I unconsciously looked in when I should have looked out. With a
suddenness that astonished me, up shot the seething mass almost in my
face. One galvanic jump--an involuntary shout of triumph--and I was
rolling heels over head on the crust of earth about ten feet off, the
hot water and clumps of sod tumbling down about me in every direction.
Another scramble brought me to my feet, of which I made such good use
that I was forty yards beyond Zoega before I knew distinctly what had
happened. The poor fellow came running toward me in great
consternation.

"Are you hurt, sir? I hope you're not hurt!" he cried, in accents of
great concern.

"Hurt!" I answered. "Didn't you see me rolling over on the ground
laughing at it? Why, Zoega, I never saw any thing so absurd as that in
my life; any decent Geyser would have given at least an hour's notice.
This miserable little wretch went off half cocked. I was just laughing
to think how sick we made him all of a sudden!"

"Oh, that was it, sir! I thought you were badly hurt."

"Not a bit of it. You never saw a man who had suffered serious bodily
injury run and jump with joy, and roll with laughter as I did."

"No, sir, never, now that I come to think of it."

Somehow it was always pleasant to talk with Zoega, his simplicity was
so refreshing.

The display was really magnificent. An immense dark column shot into
the air to the height of sixty or seventy feet, composed of
innumerable jets of water and whirling masses of sod. It resembled a
thousand fountains joined together, each with a separate source of
expulsion. The hissing hot water, blackened by the boiled clay and
turf, spurted up in countless revolving circlets, spreading out in
every direction and falling in torrents over the earth, which was
deluged for fifty feet around with the dark, steaming flood. This,
again sweeping into the mouth of the funnel, fell in thick streams
into the churn, carrying with it the sods that were scattered within
its vortex, and once