Ill THE HOT SPRINGS 25 



4. The Boiling Springs of Savu-savu. — These springs 

 figure in all the descriptions of the group, and they are also famous 

 amongst the natives. Since they were described by Wilkes, who 

 visited them in 1840, in his narrative of the United States Explor- 

 ing Expedition, many accounts of them have been written by 

 subsequent visitors ; not infrequently they have been sketched as 

 well as described ; and several analyses of their waters have been 

 made.i The accounts of these springs that lie before me extend at 

 intervals over a period of nearly sixty years ; but I shall allude to 

 them only so far as they throw light on the history of the springs 

 during this period. 



The principal springs are situated in a slight hollow in a more 

 or less level tract extending in from the beach, and are distant 

 about 1 50 yards from the shore and about ten feet above the sea- 

 level. They are five or six in number, and at the time of my visits 

 in July and November, 1 898, they were boiling briskly, the thermo- 

 meter readings being 208-210° F., but the mercury probably fell 

 two or three degrees in withdrawing the thermometer. When, as 

 was the case when Wilkes visited this locality in 1840, there is but 

 a slight appearance of boiling, brisk ebullition is produced by 

 covering them over with leaves. The natives call this locality Na 

 Kama, which signifies "the burning place," and employed the 

 springs extensively for cooking their food. Just as Wilkes 

 describes, a freshwater brook runs past the springs and receives their 

 outflow. The temperature of the brook immediately above the 

 springs is that of an ordinary freshwater stream 75-76° F. ; but 

 below it is scalding. The account given by Wilkes of the spring 

 and of the brook in 1840 applies to them in our own time. The 

 small stones lying in the effluent channels of the springs are 

 incrusted with siliceous sinter, and a green alga lines the sides, 

 bathed generally in the steam but sometimes partially immersed 

 in water only a few degrees below the boiling point. It is note- 

 worthy that this alga which was flourishing in July was all dead in 

 November. 



The scalding water also oozes through the sand of the adjacent 

 beach in abundance for a distance of at least some hundreds of 



Amongst the other descriptions of these springs I may refer to that 01 

 Kleinschmidt in the work quoted on p. 22, to that of Miss Gordon Gumming 

 in At Home in Fiji, to that of Home in his Year in Fiji, &c. They are 

 sketched in the descriptions of Kleinschmidt, Miss Gumming, and Gommodore 

 Wilkes. The analyses are given on a later page together with the references. 



