Feb. 1848. HOT SPRINGS. 27 



covering of alluvium, full of quartz pebbles. Insects and 

 birds are numerous, the latter consisting of jays, crows, 

 doves, sparrows, and maina {Pastor) ; also the Phcenico- 

 phaus tristis (" Mahoka " of the natives), with a note like 

 that of the English cuckoo, as heard late in the season. 



I remained two days with Lieutenant Beadle, enjoying 

 in his society several excursions to the hot springs, &c. 

 These springs (called Soorujkoond) are situated close to 

 the road, near the mouth of a valley, in a remarkably 

 pretty spot. They are, of course, objects of worship ; and 

 a ruined temple stands close behind them, with three very 

 conspicuous trees — a peepul, a banyan, and a white, thick- 

 stemmed, leafless Sterculia, whose branches bore dense 

 clusters of greenish foetid flowers. The hot springs are 

 four in number, and rise in as many ruined brick tanks 

 about two yards across. Another tank, fed by a cold 

 spring, about twice that size, flows between two of the hot, 

 only two or three paces distant from one of the latter on 

 either hand. All burst through the gneiss rocks, meet in 

 one stream after a few yards, and are conducted by bricked 

 canals to a pool of cold water, about eighty yards off. 



The temperatures of the hot springs were respectively 

 169°, 170°, 173°, and 190°; of the cold, 84° at 4 p.m., and 

 75° at 7 a.m. the following morning. The hottest is the 

 middle of the five. The water of the cold spring is sweet 

 but not good, and emits gaseous bubbles ; it was covered 

 with a green floating Conferva. Of the four hot springs, 

 the most copious is about three feet deep, bubbles con- 

 stantly, boils eggs, and though brilliantly clear, has an 

 exceedingly nauseous taste. This and the other warm 

 ones cover the bricks and surrounding rocks with a thick 

 incrustation of salts. 



Confervce abound in the warm stream from the springs, 



