406 CELEBES. [chap. xvii. 



with clear water very near the boiling point, and emitting 

 clouds of steam with a strong sulphureous odour. It 

 overflows at one point and forms a little stream of hot 

 water, which at a hundred yards' distance is still too 

 hot to hold the hand in. A little further on, in a piece 

 of rough wood, were two other springs not so regular 

 in outline, hut appearing to be much hotter, as they were 

 in a continual state of active ebullition. At intervals 

 of a few minutes a great escape of steam or gas took 

 place, throwing up a column of water three or four feet 

 high. 



We then went to the mud-springs, which are about a 

 mile off, and are still more curious. On a sloping tract of 

 ground in a slight hollow is a small lake of liquid mud, in 

 patches of blue, red, or white, and in many places boiling 

 and bubbling most furiously. All around on the indu- 

 rated clay, are small wells and craters full of boiling mud. 

 These seem to be forming continually, a small hole appear- 

 ing first, which emits jets of steam and boiling mud, which 

 on hardening, forms a little cone with a crater in the 

 middle. The ground for some distance is very unsafe, as it 

 is evidently liquid at a small depth, and bends with pres- 

 sure like thin ice. At one of the smaller marginal jets 

 which I managed to approach, I held my hand to see if it 

 was really as hot as it looked, when a little drop of mud 

 that spurted on to my finger scalded like boiling water. 



