Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/516

502 readily made when the American locality is the one actually observed, as the others have long been known, and quite thoroughly studied and described. The maps of the three great geyser-regions present the best comparative view of them. Expressed in figures, the areas within which the springs are included are as follow:

In the southern Iceland region, which includes the Haukadal locality, there are about six areas or groups of hot springs, which are from forty to fifty miles apart. In New Zealand there are some ten groups, the greatest distance between them being about fifteen miles. In the Yellowstone National Park, there are from thirty to forty localities or groups, some quite close together, and others sixteen miles apart. In Iceland only three of the areas have geysers of note. In the Yellowstone Park eight, at least, have good spouters, and New Zealand has fully as many localities. The following table compares some of these groups. It should be premised, however, that the individual groups included under the Yellowstone Park are not a portion of the thirty or forty localities just enumerated, but subdivisions of some of them. The Upper Geyser Basin and the Lower Geyser Basin of Firehole River are really comparable with the Haukadal area, and yet the first two comprise respectively 2,560 acres and 19,200 acres.

In the number of springs and noted geysers, the Yellowstone National Park and New Zealand far exceed Iceland, in which "The Great Geyser" and Strokhr are the only two prominent spouters. As to the number of springs in New Zealand, there are no definite data, but they appear to be numerous. In the Yellowstone Park, over two thousand springs have been enumerated and mapped, and among them are seventy-one geysers, of which twenty are known to spout to a height of not less than fifty feet. Of course, in each of the three countries, there are hot springs outside of the areas as here indicated; and, if these are taken into account, the American localities will exceed the others, especially if the California and Nevada springs are counted.