At The Outset Our Way Lay
Across Swampy Places And Meadow Lands; But Soon We Had To Climb The
Mountains
Themselves, a task rendered extremely difficult by the
elastic, yielding soil, in which every footstep imprinted itself
deeply, suggesting to
The traveller the unpleasant possibility of
his sinking through, - a contingency rendered any thing but agreeable
by the neighbourhood of the boiling springs. At length I gained the
summit, and saw around me numerous basins filled with boiling water,
while on all sides, from hill and valley, columns of vapour rose out
of numberless clefts in the rocks. From a cleft in one rock in
particular a mighty column of vapour whirled into the air. On the
windward side I could approach this place very closely. The ground
was only lukewarm in some places, and I could hold my hand for
several moments to the gaps from which steam issued. No trace of a
crater was to be seen. The bubbling and hissing of the steam, added
to the noise of the wind, occasioned such a deafening clamour, that
I was very glad to feel firmer ground beneath my feet, and to leave
the place in haste. It really seemed as if the interior of the
mountain had been a boiling caldron. The prospect from these
mountains is very fine. Numerous valleys and mountains innumerable
offered themselves to my view, and I could even discern the isolated
black rock past which I had ridden five or six hours previously.
I now commenced my descent into the valley; at a few hundred paces
the bubbling and hissing were already inaudible.
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