Chap, ii.] CALDEIRA DES SETTE CIDADES. 33 



in violent intermittent splashes ; and there is also one deep 

 chasm, from the depths of which boiling hot blue mud is 

 jerked out in similar splashes. The mud hardens on the 

 sides of the cavity into a crust made up of successive lamince. 



The natives use the natural hot water to heat sticks or 

 planks in, in order to bend them. They also sometimes dig 

 holes in the mud and set their kettles in them to boil. As at 

 the other springs, there are cold springs issuing from the ground, 

 close to the boiling ones. One spring has its water charged 

 with carbonic acid and effervescing. All the springs empty 

 into one small stream, which then runs down to the sea, with 

 a complex mixture of mineral flavours in its water, and retains 

 its heat for several miles. 



In the shores of the lake there are large extents of geyser 

 deposit, forming strata 40 or 50 feet in thickness, and evidently 

 resulting from hot springs, now worked out, but with a few 

 small discharge pipes of heated gas remaining active here and 

 there. Near the seaward end of the lake is a hole, where, as 

 in the Grotto del Cane, an animal, when put into it, becomes 

 stupefied by inhaling the carbonic acid gas discharged. 



I made an excursion from Ponta Delgada to the Caldeira 

 des Sette Cidades, or Cauldron of the Seven Cities. It is a 

 marvellous hollow of enormous size, with two lakes at its 

 bottom and a number of villages in it. One slowly climbs the 

 mountains from the sea and suddenly looks down from the 

 crater edge upon the lakes, 1,500 feet below. On the flat 

 bottom of the crater, which is covered with verdure and 

 cultivated fields, are several small secondary craters, the whole 

 reminding one of a crater in the moon. One of these small 

 craters has been so cut up by deep water-courses, that between 

 them only a series of sharp radiating ridges is left standing, 

 and the crater has thus a very fantastic appearance. 



San Miguel, at the time of our visit, was suffering from a 

 drought which had been of long duration. A grand procession 

 therefore took place in order to procure rain, in which a 

 miraculous image, the " Santo Christo," the jewels presented 

 at the shrine of which are reputed amongst the people to be 

 worth one million sterling, was carried round the town. The 

 figure is apparently of wood, and is in a squatting posture wiih 

 the legs crossed. It was borne in a litter, with a canopy over 

 it, on men's shoulders. Next day, from seawards, we saw 

 clouds hanging low over the island, and it seemed as if the 

 image had been again miraculously successful. 



The most complete account of the geology of the Azores is that of G. 

 Hartung, "Die Azoren." Leipzig, Engelmann, i860. See also F. Du 

 Cane Godman, "Nat. Hist, of the Azores." London, Van Voorst, 1870. 



