No. W.—Distrkt of the Bay of Baja. 89 



which are occasionally appropriated to the service of the in- 

 valids who make use of the vapour-baths, and the necessity of 

 partly undressing, which is abundantly enforced by the ex- 

 ample of the Custode himself, together with his tales of wonder, 

 seems to have allayed the curiosity of many visitors, who, in 

 their books, have given us idle tales of danger. It cannot be 

 denied that a first visit is a little startling in these subter- 

 ranean dwellings of Pluto, and the supersaturation of the air 

 with aqueous vapour gives it a peculiar and stifling feeling, 

 and perhaps there are few who have not felt some disposition 

 to return after advancing thirty or forty yards. The passage 

 is narrow, perhaps not three feet wide, and on either hand are 

 niches cut out in the tufa where patients may he exposed to the 

 force of the steam. At a distance of sixty paces from the en- 

 trance, during which the path is pretty level, and five or six feet 

 high, the inconvenience derived from heat and difficulty in 

 breathing is greatest, for we afterwards turn pretty sharply to 

 the right, and, descending gently, breathe a more tolerable at- 

 mosphere, tiiough nearer the source of heat. After going about 

 sixty paces farther,* I reached the hot spring, and, by keeping 

 my head near the ground, I found that I could have remained 

 a considerable time without much inconvenience. The pool 

 of water there formed seemed to have accumulated in a pas- 

 sage originally cut to a greater length, since the water rose to 

 the roof from its slanting direction. From the confusion of 

 the moment, and the apparent unnaturalness of a spring hot- 

 ter than the hand can bear, I put my finger into it, but ra- 

 pidly withdrew it, with a sensation nothing short of the heat 

 of boihng water. I held in my hand a mercurial thermometer 

 of Gary's, which I dipped into the spring, and reading off 

 the indication by the light of a torch carried by our guide, 

 with as much deUberation as possible, I found it to be 183°.5. 

 I had reason to believe, however, from previous observation, 



* These distances are from the measurements of Bulifon. In my paper 

 written at Rome in the close of 1826, a few weeks after visiting these 

 baths, and inserted in this Joumaly I estimated the distance to the com- 

 mencement of the descent at forty yards, and the descent itself at as much 

 more ; these perhaps do not differ much from the sixty paces given in the 

 text, at least it is not more than might have been expected from the vague- 

 ness of my observation under such circumstances. 



