chap, xvn.] MUD VOLCANOES. 407 



A short distance off there was a flat bare surface of rock, 

 as smooth and hot as an oven floor, which was evidently 

 an old mud-pool dried up and hardened. For hundreds of 

 yards round where there were banks of reddish and white 

 clay used for whitewash, it was still so hot close to the 

 surface that the hand could hardly bear to be held in 

 cracks a few inches deep, and from which arose a strong 

 sulphureous vapour. I was informed that some years 

 back a French gentleman who visited these springs ven- 

 tured too near the licpiid mud, when the crust gave way 

 and he was engulfed in the horrible caldron. 



This evidence of intense heat so near the surface over 

 a large tract of country, was very impressive, and I could 

 hardly divest myself of the notion that some terrible 

 catastrophe might at any moment devastate the country. 

 Yet it is probable that all these apertures are really 

 safety-valves, and that the inequalities of the resistance 

 of various parts of the earth's crust, will always prevent 

 such an accumulation of force as would be required to 

 upheave and overwhelm any extensive area. About seven 

 miles west of this is a volcano which was in eruption 

 about thirty years before my visit, presenting a mag- 

 nificent appearance and covering the surrounding country 

 with showers of ashes. The plains around the lake formed 

 by the intermingling and decomposition of volcanic pro- 

 ducts are of amazing fertility, and with a little manage- 



