It
Was Filled With Clear Water Very Near The Boiling Point, And
Emitted Clouds Of Steam With A Strong Sulphureous Odour.
It
overflows at one point and forms a little stream of hot water,
which at a hundred yards' distance is still too hot to hold the
hand in.
A little further on, in a piece of rough wood, were two
other springs not so regular in outline, but appearing to be much
hotter, as they were in a continual state of active ebullition.
At intervals of a few minutes, a great escape of steam or gas took
place, throwing up a column of water three or four feet high.
We then went to the mud-springs, which are about a mile off, and
are still more curious. On a sloping tract of ground in a slight
hollow is a small lake of liquid mud, with patches of blue, red, or
white, and in many places boiling and bubbling most furiously.
All around on the indurated clay are small wells and craters
full of boiling mud. These seem to be forming continually, a
small hole appearing first, which emits jets of steam and boiling
mud, which upon hardening, forms a little cone with a crater in
the middle. The ground for some distance is very unsafe, as it
is evidently liquid at a small depth, and bends with pressure
like thin ice. At one of the smaller, marginal jets which I
managed to approach, I held my hand to see if it was really as
hot as it looked, when a little drop of mud that spurted on to my
finger scalded like boiling water.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 359 of 419
Words from 97533 to 97807
of 114260
