This Strange Phenomenon Generally Lasts About A Minute, And Is
Repeated So Regularly, That A Bet Could Almost Be Made, That The
Rising And Falling Of The Water, And The Increased And Lessened
Noise Of The Steam, Shall Be Seen And Heard Sixty Or Sixty-Five
Times Within An Hour.
In communication with this basin is another, situate at a distance
of about a hundred paces in a small hollow, and filled like the
former with boiling water.
As the water in the upper basin
gradually sinks, and ceases to seethe, it begins to rise in the
lower one, and is at length forced two or three feet into the air;
then it falls again, and thus the phenomenon is continually repeated
in the upper and the lower basin alternately.
At the upper spring there is also a vapour-bath. This is formed by
a small chamber situate hard by the basin, built of stones and
roofed with turf. It is further provided with a small and narrow
entrance, which cannot be passed in an upright position. The floor
is composed of stone slabs, probably covering a hot spring, for they
are very warm. The person wishing to use this bath betakes himself
to this room, and carefully closes every cranny; a suffocating heat,
which induces violent perspiration over the whole frame, is thus
generated. The people, however, seldom avail themselves of this
bath.
On my return I had still to visit a basin with a jet of water, in a
fine meadow near the church; a low wall of stone has been erected
round this spring to prevent the cattle from scalding themselves if
they should approach too near in the ardour of grazing.
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