266 Celebes. 



coffee-plantations before I could get to the forest, and as soon 

 as I did so it came on to rain heavily, and did not cease till 

 night. This distance to walk every day was too far for any 

 profitable work, especially when the weather was so uncertain. 

 I therefore decided at once that I must go further on, till I 

 found some place close to or in a forest country. In the aft- 

 ernoon my friend Mr. Bensneider arrived, together with the 

 controlleur of the next district, called Belang, from whom I 

 learned that six miles further on there was a village called 

 Panghu, Avhich had been recently formed, and had a good deal 

 of forest close to it, and he promised me the use of a small 

 house if I liked to go there. 



The next morning I went to see the hot springs and mud- 

 volcanoes, for which this place is celebrated. A picturesque 

 path among plantations and ravines brought us to a beautiful 

 circular basin about forty feet diameter, bordered by a calca- 

 reous ledge, so uniform and truly curved that it looked like a 

 work of art. It was filled with clear water very near the boil- 

 ing-point, and emitting clouds of steam with a strong sulphu- 

 reous odor. 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 aj^pearing 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 moi'e curious. On a sloping tract of ground 

 in a slight hollow is a small lake of liquid mud, in 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 apjjearing first, which emits 

 jets of steam and boiling mud, which, on 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 



