I 



63 



NOTES OF A VISIT TO THE " HOT SPPJNa," NEAR 

 SOUTHPOET, IN 1877. 

 By T. Stephens, M.A., F.G.^. ' 

 [_Eead 9th July, 1878.] 



About the middle of July, 1877, I liad an oj^portuiiity of 

 paying a visit to the thermal spring, near Soutlij^ort, disco- 

 vered not very many years ago by some splitters who were at 

 work in the neighbourhood. Mr. Graves, who accompanied 

 me, and who had kindly made all necessary arrangements 

 for the exj)edition, had once previously visited the spot ; and 

 his general local knowledge was of great service in enabling 

 us to find it without much difficulty. 



The most direct route from Southport is by boat up the 

 Lune, as far as the tidal water extends. Landing on the 

 right or western bank of the river, a track is followed for a 

 mile or more, until a convenient crossing can be effected by 

 means of a fallen tree. The country here, as far as one can 

 see, is quite level, and thickly wooded, with much fine timber 

 and tolerably dense scrub, the open spaces being usually wet 

 button-grass marshes. There was no time available in those 

 short days of winter for any geological examination of the 

 immediate neighbourhood, and no rock was seen in situ, but 

 the ground was thickly covered in places with large rounded 

 boulders of greenstone, and waterworn pebbles of quartzite. 

 After going a little astray, we at last came upon a small 

 stream, the water in which rapidly sent my thermometer up 

 from 45'^ to 72^ ; and following up this clue for some 200 or 

 800 yards through the scrub, we arrived at a spot where the 

 heated water was briskly bubbling up in the bed of the 

 stream. At the surface the temperature proved to be 82*^, 

 and at the bottom, a foot lower, 83*^ 5' ; and though this is, 

 perhaps, hardly high enough to justify the name of " Hot 

 Spring," it must be remembered that the temperature of the 

 air in the shade at the time was 45°, and that there was ice 

 nearly half an inch thick on some of the shallow pools in the 

 bush track, not a mile distaut. The water of the spring is 

 evidently cooled rapidly by the v/ater of the stream in which 

 it rises ; and it would be impossible either to ascertain the 

 maximum temperature, or to obtain a sample sufficiently pure 

 for analysis, without putting down a tube to the depth of a 

 few feet, or adopting some other means for keeping it apart. 



It is not easy to give satisfactory explanation of this 

 phenomenon ; and until I know more of the underlying for- 

 mation I can only suggest that it is probably caused by the 

 decomposition of pyrites, or other metalliferous jiroducts, in 



