62 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
was most successful. At eight o’clock in the 
morning, on coming on board, we prosecuted our 
journey. 
In the course of the forenoon we passed another 
of the limestone ranges, called Pa-baong, still 
more singular in appearance than the last; but 
we delayed our visit to it until our return. At 
two o’clock we arrived before the village of 
Ataran, or at least what had once been so. This 
is the place which gives name to the river. Near 
its site, and about a mile and a half from the 
right bank of the river, are some remarkable hot 
springs, which we visited by passing along a path 
through thick and tall grass. We examined two of 
the springs : the largest was a pool about twenty- 
five yards in diameter, and covered over with a light 
calcareous incrustation tinged with iron: the water 
was perfectly limpid, and not very sensibly saline. 
The spring seemed to be in the middle of the pool, 
where the water was seen bubbling up : there was 
no reaching this, where no doubt the heat was 
greatest. A thermometer immersed at the edge 
of the pool stood at 133°; and in the brook which 
led from it, at the distance of fifteen or twenty 
yards, it was scarcely lower. The margin of the 
pool is formed of a hard calcareous incrustation,— 
the same substance, in an indurated state, which is 
seen floating on the water. One of the limestone 
ranges, which I have already described, is not above 
two miles distant from the hot springs. The neigh- 
