XXXIV

monster can possibly fill itself with such a quantity of water, and spurt it up so continuously? At eight in the evening we are not two leagues distant from it. Its body⁠—dusky, enormous, hillocky⁠—lies spread upon the sea like an islet. Is it illusion or fear? Its length seems to me a couple of thousand yards. What can be this cetacean, which neither Cuvier nor Blumenbach knew anything about? It lies motionless, as if asleep; the sea seems unable to move it in the least; it is the waves that undulate upon its sides. The column of water thrown up to a height of five hundred feet falls in rain with a deafening uproar. And here are we scudding like lunatics before the wind, to get near to a monster that a hundred whales a day would not satisfy! Terror seizes upon me. I refuse to go further. I will cut the halliards if necessary! I am in open mutiny against the Professor, who vouchsafes no answer. Suddenly Hans rises, and pointing with his finger at the menacing object, he says: “ Holm. ” “An island!” cries my uncle. “That’s not an island!” I cried sceptically. “It’s nothing else,” shouted the Professor, with a loud laugh. “But that column of water?” “ Geysir ,” said Hans.