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Boiling Springs of Java. 463 
imf up and bursting seven or eight times in ‘a minute by the 
wateh—at times they threw up two or three tons of mud. They 
got to leeward of the smoke, and found it to stink like the wash- 
ings of a gun-barrel.—As the bubbles burst, they threw the mud 
out from the centre, with a pretty loud noise, occasioned by the 
falling of the mud on that which surrounded it, and of which the 
plain is composed. [t was difficult and dangerous to approach 
the large bubbles, as the ground was all a quagmire, except 
where the surface of the mud had become hardened by the sun : 
—upon this we approached cauticusly to within fifty yards of 
one of the largest bubbles or mud-pudding as it might properly 
be called, for it was of the consistency of custard pudding, and 
was about one hundred yards in diameter :—here and there, 
where the foot accidentally rested on a spet not sufficiently hard- 
ened to bear, it sunk—to the no small distress of the walker. 
“ They also got close to a small:bubble, (the plain was full of 
them, of different sizes,) and observed it closely for some times 
It appeared to heave and swell, and, when the internal air had 
raised it to some height, it burst, and the mud fell down in con- 
centric circles: in which state it remained quiet until a sufficient: 
quantity of air again formed internally to raise and burst another 
bubble, and this continued at intervals of from about half a mi- 
nute to two minutes. 
- From various other parts of the pudding round the large 
bubbles, there were occasionlly small quantities of sand shot up 
like rockets to the height of twenty or thirty feet, unaccom- 
panied by smoke :—this was in parts where the mud was of too 
stiff a consistency to 1:se in bubbles. The mud at all the places 
we came near was cold. ' 
“ The water which drains from the mud is collected. by the 
Javanese, and, being exposed in the hollows of split bamboos to 
the rays of the sun, deposits crystals of salt. The salt thus made 
is reserved exclusively for the use of the Emperor of Solo: in dry 
weather it yields thirty dudgins of 100 catties each, every month, 
but, in wet or cloudy weather, less. 
‘© Next morning we rode two paals and a half to a place in a 
forest called Ramsim, to view a salt lake, a mud hillock, and 
various boiling pools. 
** The lake was about half a mile in circumference, of a dirty- 
looking water, boiling up all over in gurgling eddies, but more 
articularly in the centre, which appeared like a strong spring.’ 
he water was quite cold, and tasted bitter, salt, and sour, and 
had an offensive smell. 
** About thirty yards from the lake stood the mud _ hillock, 
which was about fifteen feet high from the level of the earth. 
The diameter of its base was about twentyefive yards, and its top 
wey about 
