chap, xvii.] HOT SPRINGS. 405 



to stay, and I accordingly unpacked my baggage and made 

 myself comfortable in the large house devoted to visitors. 

 I obtained a man to shoot for me, and another to accom- 

 pany me the next day to the forest, where I was in hopes 

 of finding a good collecting ground. 



In the morning after breakfast I started off, but found 

 I had four miles to walk over a wearisome straight road 

 through coffee plantations before I could get to the forest, 

 and as soon as I did so it came on to rain heavily, and 

 did not cease till night. This distance to walk every day 

 was too far for any profitable work, especially when the 

 weather was so uncertain. I therefore decided at once 

 that I must go further on, till I found some place close 

 to or in a forest country. In the afternoon my friend 

 Mr. Bensneider arrived, together with the Controlleur of 

 the next district, called Belang, from whom I learnt that 

 six miles further on there was a village called Panghu, 

 which had been recently formed and had a good deal of 

 forest close to it ; and he promised me the use of a small 

 house if I liked to go there. 



The next morning I went to see the hot-springs and 

 mud volcanoes, for which this place is celebrated. A 

 picturesque path among plantations and ravines, brought 

 us to a beautiful circular basin about forty feet diameter, 

 bordered by a calcareous ledge, so uniform and truly 

 curved that it looked like a work of art. It was filled 



