ON ITS EXTERIOR. SPRINGS OF VAPOURS AND GASES. 217 



able tubes also of bamboo, to be used in salt-works, in 

 warming houses, or in lighting streets. In some rare 

 instances the supply has suddenly become exhausted, or 

 has been stopped by earthquakes. Thus it is known 

 that a celebrated Ho-tsing, situated south-west of the 

 town of Khiung-tscheu (N. lat. 50 27', long. 103 27' E.), 

 a saline spring which burnt with noise, became extinct in 

 the 13th century, after having supplied lights for the 

 country round for 1100 years. In the province of 

 Schan-si, which is very rich in stone coal, some coal- 

 beds are on fire. The "fire mountains" (Ho-schan), 

 are found over a large part of China. The flames often 

 rise, at great heights above the sea (for example, in the 

 rocks of the Py-kia-schan, at the foot of a mountain 

 covered with perpetual snow in lat. 31 40'), from long, 

 open, inaccessible fissures or clefts : a phenomenon which 

 recalls the " perpetual fires of Schagdagh " in the Cau- 

 casus. 



In the island of Java, in the province of Samarang 

 about 12 miles from the north coast, there are salses 

 which resemble those of Turbaco and Gralera Zamba. 

 Hillocks, from 27 to 33 feet high (which undergo fre- 

 quent changes), cast up mud, salt water, and a remark- 

 able mixture of hydrogen and carbonic acid gases, ( 299 ) a 

 phenomenon which must not be confounded with the 

 great and devastating torrents of mud, poured forth on 

 the rare occurrence of eruptions of the colossal true 

 volcanoes of Java (Grunung Kelut and Grunung Idjen). 

 Some mephitic grottoes, or springs of carbonic acid gas, 

 in the island of Java, are still very celebrated, in great 

 measure from the exaggerated descriptions of some tra- 

 vellers, as well as from a connection, suspected by Sykes 



