and having eaten everything we could lay hands on, we sat quietly
down to chess, and _coffee brewed in geyser water_; when suddenly
it seemed as if beneath our very feet a quantity of subterranean
cannon were going off: the whole earth shook, and Sigurdr, starting
to his feet, upset the chess board (I was just beginning to get the
best of the game), and started off at full speed toward the great
basin. By the time we reached its brim, however, the noise had
ceased, and all we could see was a slight movement in the centre,
as if an angel had passed by and troubled the water. Irritated by
this false alarm, we determined to revenge ourselves by going and
tormenting the Strokr.

'The Strokr--or the _Churn_--you must know, is an unfortunate
geyser, with so little command over his temper and his stomach that
you can get a _rise_ out of him whenever you like. All that is
necessary is to collect a quantity of sods, and throw them down his
funnel. As he has no basin to protect him from these liberties, you
can approach to the very edge of the pipe, about five feet in
diameter, and look down at the boiling water, which is perpetually
seething at the bottom. In a few minutes the dose of turf you have
administered begins to disagree with him; he works himself up into
an awful passion--tormented by the qualms of incipient sickness; he
groans and hisses, and boils up and spits at you with malicious
vehemence, until at last, with a roar of mingled pain and rage, he
throws up into the air a column of water forty feet high, which
carries with it all the sods that have been chucked in, and
scatters them scalded and half digested at your feet. So irritated
has the poor thing's stomach become by the discipline it has
undergone, that long after all foreign matter has been thrown off,
it goes on retching and spluttering, until, at last, nature is
exhausted, when, sobbing and sighing to itself, it sinks back into
the bottom of its den. Put into the highest spirits by the success
of this performance, we turned to examine the remaining springs. I
do not know, however, that any of the rest are worthy of any
particular mention. They all resemble in character the two I have
described, the only difference being that they are infinitely
smaller, and of much less power and impor