=24 
TRAVELS IN 
disrupted by any subterraneous eruption or concussion. ' 0» 
the opposite side of the dale, however, stood a long range of 
hills which had every appearance of volcanic origin. Some 
were perfect cones ; others truncated at the summit, in the 
manner of those on which craters are generally found. Hills 
like these, standing each on its proper base, and so very dif- 
ferent from any that had yet been seen, were too interesting 
to pass ; and we turned out of the road to visit them. Like 
the rest, they were composed of quartz, sand-stone, and iron ; 
not, however stratified as in the great chains, but torn and 
rent into large fragments. There was no lava ; nor did it ap- 
pear that any of the stones had undergone fusion. There was 
no blue slate in their sides, which most probably would have 
been the case had they been thrown up by any subterranean 
impulse, the whole base of the plain being composed of it. 
They seemed in fact to be the remains of worn down moun- 
tains crumbhng into fragments with age. 
• Within these hills we came to a valley about three miles in 
length and two in width, having a surface as level as that of 
a bowling-green. By a strong stream passing from one end to 
the other, the whole might be laid under water, and converted 
into most excellent rice grounds. This stream was smoking 
hot. The springs, by w4iich it was supplied, issued out of 
the ground at the foot of some hills which formed the head of 
the valley. They threw up the water with great violence, and 
with it quantities of small whitish sand mixed with minute 
chrystals of quartz. The bed of the reservoir, and the channel 
down which the water was carried across the valley, in a stream 
strong enough to turn the largest mill in England, were com- 
