40 
MINERAL SPRINGS. 
We returned to Sirang on the evening of the 15th, and on the fol- 
lowing morning made an excursion to a place called Epetan, about 
eighteen miles to the north of Sirang, to see some mineral springs. 
These springs are in the midst of a jungle on the right hand side of 
the road from Sirang to Batavia, and the country for many miles around 
is a perfect flat. On approaching them I smelt the sulphureous gas, 
which they throw out in immense quantities. They are situated on 
a piece of barren ground about fifty yards square, composed of a 
hard rock, which seemed to have been formed by deposition 
from the springs. In the midst of this space were several small 
pools of water in violent commotion. They so exactly exhibited 
the appearance of boiling, that I immersed my hand in them with 
considerable caution, and scarcely credited my feeling when I found 
them of the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere. The 
central pool was the largest, having an area of eight or ten feet. 
The water bubbled up from several parts of its surface. For the 
sake of ascertaining the cause of these phenomena, I walked in 
and discovered its greatest depth to be about three feet. Its bot- 
tom was formed of rock, broken into masses of different shapes. 
On searching immediately under the place where the agitation of 
the water was most violent I found a small funnel-shaped aperture, 
the lower part of which was not more than an inch in diameter. 
Through this, sulphuretted hydrogen rushed up in such quantity and 
with so much force, that I could with great difficulty keep my hand 
close to its orifice. 
On examining the sensible properties of the water on the spot, I 
found it to be of a dirty white colour, containing a considerable 
portion of earthy matter in suspension. The smell was that of Har- 
rogate-water. The soil on the margin, and at the bottom of these 
pools, is soft and of a yellowish grey colour oh the surface ; but a 
few inches beneath, it becomes of a rocky hardness, and red. At 
the distance, however, of two or three feet from the pools, the sur- 
face itself is equally hard, but of a blue colour, and bearing evident 
marks of having been at some distant period, the seat of agitated 
