Ball — On the Volcanoes and Hot Springs of India. 161 



feet deep ; it is covered by a dome, and surrounded by apartments, 

 with an open verandah, now occupied by the Brahmins. 



A site at Sitakund, in Chitagong, in the East, several which are in 

 Sind in the West, and others in the high Himalayas, besides many 

 nearer at hand, are visited by pious Hindus from all parts of India. 

 Not unfrequently Hindu temples, and, in a few cases, Mahommedan 

 shrines, have been erected in their immediate vicinities. At Tatapani, 

 in Sirguja, already referred to, I saw a dome-like structure which had 

 been erected over a spring which, when I was there, had ceased to 

 flow, though there were numbers of others in an active condition all 

 round it. Possibly the deserted aspect the place then presented may 

 have been connected with the cessation of that particular spring. 



The mineral substances which have either been proved to exist in 

 the waters of these springs by chemical analysis, or are manifest to 

 the eye by the deposits which concrete and solidify as the waters cool 

 down, indicate with sufficient clearness the nature of the chemical 

 reactions which have probably given rise to the heat. In some 

 few cases, however, where the water is comparatively pure, or for 

 other reasons, it maybe necessary to invoke the aid of the internal 

 heat of the earth to account for the high temperature.^ In general 

 terms, however, it may be said that such hot springs as are here 

 described are not ^connected with true volcanic phenomena. 



The explanations given by the natives are not all so extravagant 

 or mystical as those which are quoted below ; for, in the time of 

 Akbar, the heat of the spring at Sohna, already referred to, was 

 ascribed to a mine of sulphur.^ 



The following are typical examples of the usual explanations 

 given by the natives to account for the phenomena. The first presents 

 a striking resemblance to the biblical story of the miraculous supply 

 of water which we are told Moses obtained for the Israelites in the 

 wilderness. It refers to a spring near Anaval (No. 23), 50 miles 

 south-east of Surat, which is said to have been produced by an arrow, 

 shot by Eama in order to supply 18,000 priests, who had been miracu- 

 lously transported there by Huniman, and were in want of water. This 

 locality is the site of a great fair which is held in the month Chaitro^ 

 when the temperature of the watei-, so it is said, is miraculously 

 lowered from its normal height so as to admit of the pilgrims bathing 

 in the water. In Sind there are somewhat similar stories of certain 



1 "Jungle Life in India," p. 531. 



2 See Ayin Akbari, Gladwin's ed., vol. ii., 1800, p. 88. 



