A GOLDEN DAY ON FORDING RIVER 25 



and follow him. To bathe in that awful hole was the 

 regular thing to do; so we sadly tramped across the 

 meadow to the foot of the mountain-ridge that rises from 

 its eastern side; and there we found the Spring. 



At the edge of the grass lay a pale-green pool, eighty 

 feet long, forty feet wide, and in the deepest place about 

 twelve feet deep. The water was very clear, except 

 where a metallic scum floated upon the surface, and the 

 bottom looked like corroded copper. For a bath it was 

 the most uncanny-looking proposition I ever encoun- 

 tered; and I have bathed with alligators, gavials and 

 sharks, more than once. The bottom looked most unsatis- 

 factory; but being unable to make or to mend it, we dis- 

 robed, — very slowly and reluctantly it seemed to me, — 

 and prepared to take our medicine. 



It was necessary to cross one end of the pool, on two 

 villainous saplings which tried hard to throw us down; 

 and the sharp stones on the hinterland cut our bare feet 

 most exquisitely. John bravely led the way into the hor- 

 rid hole, and when I followed, the warmth of the water 

 proved unexpectedly grateful and comforting. The tem- 

 perature was about 72 degrees, except where the water 

 streamed up out of the ground, and there it must have 

 been about 90 degrees. In a few minutes we became 

 hardened to the powerful yellow fumes which lay like 

 a blanket on the surface of the pool, and then the bath 

 became really enjoyable, — all but the bottom. The slime 

 in which we stood, whenever we ceased to swim, was 

 neither nice nor tidy, and so we swam as much as pos- 

 sible. In the centre of the pool, where the water was 



