248 
HOT BATHS. 
nearly in front of the convent, and on the very margin of the lake. 
They rise bubbling through the surface, and forming small streams, 
unite in a torrent which flows into the lake. Round buildings with 
doomed roofs have been built over many of them to serve as vapour- 
baths ; and the water of others are conducted into large tanks, which 
serve as open baths. These were formerly used as appendages to an 
hospital built for the use of the natives ; but the baths are in ruins, 
and the hospital has entirely disappeared. 
The construction of the vapour-baths was very simple, and had 
been probably well adapted to its purpose. On looking into them 
b y a very small door, I found a floor formed by a bamboo frame 
laid over the hot spring, which had been formed into a well 
several feet in depth. It had been originally intended that the 
patient should stand on the bamboo, and thus be enveloped in 
steam ; but this purpose could not be effected when I saw them, 
as the water rose above the frames, and was intolerably hot. There 
were three baths, which were all supplied, as far as I could judge, 
by the same stream, which having run under them and succes- 
sively filled the respective reservoirs, passed off in a channel to 
the lake. The water of the bath nearest the source of the spring, 
raised a thermometer immersed in it to 174° of Fahrenheit, and 
the steam of the same bath to 108°; the water of the second 
bath raised it to 168° and its steam to 100°; the water of the third 
bath to 164° and its steam to 99°. Aided by a pair of thick shoes I 
ventured unto the bamboo in the bath of lowest temperature ; and 
felt no other inconvenience than the sense of great heat on first 
entering, and was less sensible of this in a few seconds. My respira- 
tion was quite easy, and my pulse beat at 108 full and soft. I had 
only remained long enough to ascertain these facts, when the heat 
at my feet drove me away. 
The temperature of one of the springs, at its source in the open 
air, was higher than that of any of the baths, being 180°. The 
lowest temperature of any of the springs was 120°. The tempera- 
ture of a large stream, at its junction with the lake, was 168°. In 
