slands had never been visited; and none were to
be found who had entirely made the circuit of its shores, and no
instrumental observations, or geographical survey of any description,
had ever been made anywhere in the neighboring region. It was generally
supposed that it had no visible outlet; but, among the trappers,
including those in my own camp, were many who believed that somewhere
on its surface was a terrible whirlpool, through which its waters found
their way to the ocean by some subterranean communication. All these
things had been made a frequent subject of discussion in our desultory
conversations around the fires at night; and my own mind had become
tolerably well filled with their indefinite pictures, and insensibly
colored with their romantic descriptions, which, in the pleasure
of excitement, I was well disposed to believe, and half expected to
realize.

"In about six miles' travel from our encampment we reached one of the
points in our journey to which we had always looked forward with great
interest--the famous Beer Springs, which, on account of the effervescing
gas and acid taste, had received their name from the voyageurs and
trappers of the country, who, in the midst of their rude and hard lives,
are fond of finding some fancied resemblance to the luxuries they rarely
have the good fortune to enjoy.

"Although somewhat disappointed in the expectations which various
descriptions had led me to form of unusual beauty of situation and
scenery, I found it altogether a place of very great interest; and a
traveller for the first time in a volcanic region remains in a constant
excitement, and at every step is arrested by something remarkable and
new. There is a confusion of interesting objects gathered together in
a small space. Around the place of encampment the Beer Springs were
numerous but, as far as we could ascertain, were entirely confined to
that locality in the bottom. In the bed of the river in front, for
a space of several hundred yards, they were very abundant; the
effervescing gas rising up and agitating the water in countless bubbling
columns. In the vicinity round about were numerous springs of an
entirely different and equally marked mineral character. In a rather
picturesque spot, about 1,300 yards below our encampment and immediately
on the river bank, is the most remarkable spring of the place. In an
opening on the rock, a white column of scattered water is thrown up, in
form, like a jet