Ball — On the Volcanoes and Hot Springs of India. 165 



At Lasundra, in Kaira, there are six hot springs of various 

 temperatures up to 124° P. The water is believed to be beneficial for 

 skin diseases. The place is held sacred by the Hindus, who assert that 

 Eama performed the funeral ceremonies of his father there. ^ 



So far back as the time of Akbar a spring at Parwa, in Kashmir, 

 was described as being one in which lepers were healed by bathing.- 



At Belkapi (No. 173), in Hazaribagh, there is a copious deposit of 

 sodium chloride and sulphate, with indications of iron sulphate, from 

 a hot spring ; cattle are said to be very fond of it.^ 



In the Bakh ravine of the Salt Eange of the Punjab, sulphuretted 

 hydrogen bubbles up, and the water, which is covered by a thin film 

 of gypsum, deposits a black tenacious mud used as a dye by the 

 natives for colouring cotton clothes.* 



In some cases the hot springs are accompanied by outbursts of 

 inflammable gas. Occasionally there are cases too of gas being evolved 

 without the accompaniment of water. At a place, nine and a-half 

 miles from Ka-ma, in the Thayetmyo district of Burmah, there is a 

 curious manifestation known as the " spirit fire." It is caused by the 

 (reputed) spontaneous ignition of gas stored in the subterranean 

 fi.ssures.^ 



A spring at the N'chongbum stream, in the upper Dehing Basin in 

 Assam, is described by Mr. T. D. LaTouche as evolving a considerable 

 amount of gas in conjunction with a small amount of water at a 

 temperature of 89° P. The gas when ignited burnt freely with a 

 flame three or four feet high." 



In an interesting Paper by Dr. "Waddell, in which he gives an 

 account of the hot springs of Behar, he says that most of them are 

 held in considerable repute by the natives of the neighbourhood as 

 potent remedies, especially for itch, ulcers, and other skin affections. 

 But a most essential part of the process consists in the preliminary 

 worship which must be paid to the presiding deity of the spring. 



"Nearly all of these springs are worshipped by the Hindu and 

 semi-aboriginal villagers in the vicinity ; for these strange outbursts 

 of heated water, boiling up cauldron-like and wreathed in clouds of 

 vapour, are regarded by them as supernatural phenomena, and the 



1 Hunter, "W. W., Imp. Gaz., sich voce Kaira ; and Oldham, No. 145. 



- Ayin Akbari, vol. ii., Gladwin's ed., 1800, p. 134. 



3 oidham, No. 122. 



■* Wynne, A. B., Mem. Geol. Surv. India, vol. xiv., p. 48. 



^ Hunter, "W. "W., Imp. Gaz., stib voce Thyet Myo. 



8 Rec. Geol. Surv. India, vol. xix., p. 112. 



