"Irritated by this false alarm, we determined to avenge ourselves by going and tormenting the Strokkur. Strokkur, 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 himself from these liberties, you can approach to the very edge of the pipe, about five feet in diameter, and look down at the water, which is perpetually boiling at the bottom.

"In a few minutes the dose of turf you have just administered begins to disagree with him. He works himself up into an awful passion. Tormented by the qualms of 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 cast in, and scatters them scalded and half digested at your feet.