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 



