122 SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



acquired their heat at some greater depth, from some constant, 

 steady cause, (however difficult to explain) adequate to the length 

 of time they have been known to exist, with the same unvaried 

 force and temperature. 



Springs do not boil on or near these banks only. They rise in 

 every part of the valley, and within the circumference of a mile 

 and an half, more than an hundred might easily be counted. Most 

 of them are very small, and may be just perceived simmering in the 

 hole from whence the steam is issuing. This, trailing on the ground, 

 deposits in some places a thin coat of sulphur. The proportion 

 varies; for near some of these small springs, scarce any is percepti- 

 ble, whilst the channels t*y which the water escapes from others, 

 are entirely lined with it for several yards. Neither the water, nor 

 the steam from the larger springs, ever appear to deposit the 

 smallest proportion of sulphur; nor can the sulphureous vapour 

 they contain be discovered, otherwise than by the taste of what 

 has been boiled in them for a long time. 



Many springs boil in great cauldrons, or basons, of two, three or 

 four feet diameter. The water in these is agitated with a violent 

 ebullition, and vast clouds of steam fly off from its surface. Several 

 little streams are formed by the water which escapes from the 

 bason; and as these retain their heat for a considerable way, no 

 little caution is required to walk among them with safety. 



The thermometer constantly rose in these springs to the 2 1 2th 

 degree ; and in one small opening, from whence a quantity of 

 steams issued with great impetuosity, Dr. Wright observed the mer- 

 cury rise, in two successive trials, to the 213th degree. 



I have already said, that the ground, through which many of the 

 springs are boiling, was reduced to a clay of various colours. In 

 some, the water is quite turbid ; and, according to the colour of 

 the clay through which it has passed, is red, yellow or gray. 



The springs, however, from whence the water overflows in any 

 great quantity, are to appearance perfectly pure. The most re- 

 markable of these was about fifty or sixty yards from our station, 

 and was distinguished by the people of the neighbourhood, by the 

 name of the little Geyzer. The water of it boiled with a loud and 

 rumbling noise in a well of an ir/vgular form, of about six feet in 

 its greatest diameter; from thence it burst forth into the air, and 

 subsided again, nearly every minute. The jets were dashed into 



