Centre Valley Hot Springs 



One of the latter had a travertine cone shaped like a bee- 

 hive, and in the case of another the water issued from 

 the summit of a travertine tube 12 feet high and 4 feet 

 in diameter. 



At the foot of the steep slope which formed the head 

 of the valley we came upon a beautiful series of travertine 

 terraces in some respects not unlike the stalagmite basins 

 which we had previously seen in the caves of the lime- 

 stone plateau near Lyell. On ascending these pink, 

 white, and pale-green marble-like steps we found on the 

 top of each a pool of clear water slowly overflowing the 

 lip and fed in its turn by the overflow from the pool on 

 the surface of the terrace above. The source of the 

 water, which as it flowed from basin to basin gradually 

 cooled and deposited its dissolved silica, was a hot spring 

 near the foot of the rock wall. 



The temperature of the water where it issued from 

 the spring was 150 Fahr., but in the pools on one of 

 the terraces we were able to have a hot bath, a luxury 

 we had been unable to obtain since we left Lyell in the 

 early spring. 



On the way up the valley we had shot several wild 

 fowl of the pheasant tribe, and these we were able to 

 boil in one of the springs by tying them up, together 

 with a large stone, in a canvas bag, and lowering them 

 by means of a cord into the boiling water. 



The most interesting phenomena in this valley, which 

 we judged from the distance and the direction in which 

 we had travelled to be in the same belt of country as the 

 active volcano which we had previously visited, were the 

 great geysers. These are probably the result of deep 

 tubes penetrating from the surface to some heated mass 



247 



