One would need to pile up five
or six tents to have the height of one of the pillars. Without
exaggeration, I think the largest spout rose above one hundred feet
high, and was three to four feet in diameter.
Fortunately I had looked at my watch at the beginning of the hollow
sounds, the forerunners of the eruption, for during its continuance
I should probably have forgotten to do so. The whole lasted four
minutes, of which the greater half must have been taken up by the
eruption itself.
When this wonderful scene was over, the peasant accompanied me to
the basin. We could now approach it and the boiler without danger,
and examine both at leisure. There was now nothing to fear; the
water had entirely disappeared from the outer basin. We entered it
and approached the inner basin, in which the water had sunk seven or
eight feet, where it boiled and bubbled fiercely.
With a hammer I broke some crust out of the outer as well as out of
the inner basin; the former was white, the latter brown. I also
tasted the water; it had not an unpleasant taste, and can only
contain an inconsiderable proportion of sulphur, as the steam does
not even smell of it.
