VICHY WATERS. 253 
After having supplied several baths, the stream flows 
into a large fish pond, where it is still of blood heat. 
In this pond we are informed that carp and tench mul- 
tiply very fast, and grow to an enormous size ; but that 
their flesh is soft and without flavour, until they have 
been removed, for about six months, into a pond of cold 
water, where they become perfectly firm and good for 
the table. 
In their medicinal application these waters are chiefly 
employed externally, and their great heat allows of 
every convenience for vapour, hot, warm, and tepid 
bathing. The village of Dorset, or Bordscheit, in which 
they are found, is situated about a quarter of a mile 
south of Aix-la-Chapelle (285). 
5. HOT., SALINE, HIGHLY CARBONATED CHALYBEATE 
WATER. 
287. THE VICHY WATERS are hot, saline, 
beate. They vary in some degree in the different springs, have 
a salt and somewhat bitter taste, and a considerable pungency 
of smell. They are alkaline, and about the temperature of 
120. 
There are, at Vichy, a small town on the banks of the 
river Allier, about 180 miles south-east of Paris, no 
fewer than six different springs of hot water, which vary 
somewhat in their temperature, and in the proportion of 
their foreign contents. The valley in which this -town is 
situated is highly fertile and beautiful, and abounds in 
vineyards and fruit-trees. 
It is remarkable that sheep, cows, and other animals, 
crowd to drink this water with great eargerness, and 
even to lick the stones and sides of the channel through 
which it flows. Their partiality for it is so great that, 
at certain times, they are known to swim across the 
river Allier, in considerable numbers together, without 
even tasting of that water, and to proceed, without in* 
terruption onward, until they reach this their favourite 
beverage. 
