eep one for? Or, to make the
question intelligible to those among us who speak the Sweden-borgian
tongue, what 'uses does he perform?'

THE DEVIL'S CANON IN CALIFORNIA.

This wonderful ravine is more generally known under the name of the
_Geysers of California_, an ambitious misnomer, which associates it with
the grand Geysers of Iceland, and has given rise to erroneous ideas in
regard to the nature and action of the springs it contains.

The prevalent idea of a geyser is a hot fountain, sometimes quiescent,
but at others rising in turbulent eruption. The mere existence of a hot
spring does not imply a 'geyser,' for, if such were the case, their
number would be very great, hot springs in many parts of the world being
frequent if not general accompaniments of volcanic action.
Unquestionably, the Geysers of Iceland, the 'Strokr,' and the spring of
the Devil's Canon, the 'Witches' Caldron', are the results of volcanic
action; but that action differs essentially in its operation. The
'Strokr' and the 'Great Geyser' are intermittent, and are accounted for
by the siphon theory: the 'Witches' Caldron' is always full and boiling,
and no difference is seen in it from one year's end to another.

It is not, moreover, a fountain, but a basin in the hillside, in which a
black and muddy spring is always bubbling without overflowing.

The great eruptions of the Icelandic Geysers are, it has been observed,
accounted for by the siphon theory; in other words, this theory supposes
the existence of a chamber in the heated earth, not quite full of water,
and communicating with the upper air by means of a pipe, whose lower
orifice is _at the side_ of the cavern and _below_ the surface of the
water. The water, being kept boiling by the intense heat, generates
steam, which soon accumulates such force as to discharge the contents of
the pond into the air through the narrow vent, or, at least enough to
allow of the escape of the superfluous steam. In the Great Geyser of
Iceland this eruption occurs with tremendous power, lasting only a few
moments, when, all the volume of water falling back into the pool, it
sinks much below its ordinary level, and remains quiescent for several
days, until a fresh creation of steam repeats the phenomenon.

'The Witches' Caldron,' which is the 'Great Geyser' of California, on
the contrary, never rises into the air; the subterranean pond of which
it is the safety valve, may be considered to rise in it