Ball — On the Volcanoes and Hot Springs of India. 157 



Mythical Volcanoes. — Although, genuine volcanic action is quite 

 unknown from personal observation to the inhabitants of peninsular 

 India and the Himalayas, still, curious to relate, the belief that there 

 are burning mountains in regions included within these geographical 

 areas is not uncommon. In some parts of the Central Provinces and 

 Western Bengal which I have explored, I was prepared by the writ- 

 ings of previous travellers to hear stories of certain peaks from which 

 smoke, and it was generally added flames also, issued. In some cases 

 I saw the so-called smoke rising from the peaks, but it proved to con- 

 sist merely of wreaths of misty cloud which, in certain conditions of 

 the atmosphere, clung to the highest points, before disappearing under 

 the influence of the morning sun. I examined these peaks, and in 

 none of them was there the slightest trace of volcanic action. There 

 is before me a somewhat sensational paragraph taken from the Madras 

 Mail about a hill in a region I know well, Bhawani Patna, in the 

 Central Provinces, which was said to have emitted loud reports and 

 flashes of fire ; this is but an example of an amplified myth founded 

 on native authority, which when embellished with more or less correct 

 references to actual geological phenomena, subsequently obtained a 

 Avide circulation through the press. 



Eire, in whatever form it may appear, is an object that arouses the 

 native imagination. It is commonly said that the fires which occur 

 in the jungle in the hot seasons in India, as in the prairies of America, 

 are the result of spontaneous ignition. Although well acquainted with 

 a, number of methods by which a spark may be produced by the labo- 

 rious rubbing of two sticks together, having investigated the species 

 of wood that are necessary to produce the result, I venture to think 

 that, ready as the dried-up herbage may be to ignite, it does not ignite 

 without human agency, either intentional or accidental. I have seen 

 a fire spread for miles by night-time along a range of hills, which I 

 had myself ignited a few hours previously ; and certainly in India the 

 intentional setting fire to dried-up herbage in the jungle is a common 

 practice, as the grass which immediately springs up affords much 

 needed fodder for cattle, while accidental ignition may take place 

 from the cooking-places of wayside travellers. 



Spontaneous fires, however, are not unknown in India, and whether 

 in connection with exposed coal seams or jets of inflammable gas, 

 they are much resorted to by pilgrims as sites of divine manifestation. 

 Of the former I have seen several, and of the latter cases are recorded 

 in the following pages. 



