Their jets are smaller, but to compensate this deficiency, they are
more frequent in their ascent; so that travellers who are too
impatient to await the eruptions of the Great Geyser, content
themselves with visiting the little ones.

Would it not be very convenient to live near a geyser? We might
have our victuals cooked by it, and have pipes led from it all
round our house, to keep us comfortable in winter; and we might
have nice hot baths in our dressing-rooms, arid even a little
steam-engine to roast our meat and grind our coffee. But perhaps
you may think it might not be altogether pleasant to be kept so
continually in hot water.

Were any of the water from the geyser to fall on your hands, you
would doubtless feel it rather sore; still more so, were you to be
so rash as to thrust your hand fairly into the jet of boiling
water, as it ascends into the air. Nevertheless, strange as it may
seem, it would be possible for you, without feeling any pain or
sustaining any injury, to thrust your hand right into the glowing
lava as it flows from the crater of Hecla. The only precaution
needful to be observed, is first to plunge the hand into cold
water, and then dry it gently with a soft towel, but so as to leave
it still a little moist. This discovery was made by a French
philosopher, M. Boutigny, and has been practically proved both by
him and M. Houdin, the celebrated conjuror, by thrusting their
hands into molten iron, as it flowed from the furnace. The latter
describes the sensation as like what one might imagine to be felt
on putting the hand into liquid velvet.[1] The reason why this
experiment proves so harmless is that between the skin and the
glowing substance there is formed a film of vapour, which acts as a