KREISEVIG. 
201 
same materials in a hot and almost liquid state, 
so that we literally walk “ per ignes, suppositos 
cineri doloso.” This kind of soil became still 
more and more dangerous the nearer we ap¬ 
proached to the spring, and, indeed, prevented 
our being so close to it as we wished. An ele¬ 
vated rim, about two feet high and three feet in 
diameter, composed of a dark bluish black bolus, 
formed a complete circle round the mouth of the 
spring, the water in which was sometimes quiet 
“ spot of ground at the top, which was so thoroughly covered 
f< with sulphur, that wherever they walked, a thick smoke 
“ issued from under their feet. Ever since that time this 
f ‘ island brings in to the prince of Satzuma about twenty chests 
“ of silver per annum, arising only from the sulphur dug up 
et there.—The country of Simabara, particularly about the 
“ hot baths above mentioned, affords also a fine, pure, na- 
“ tive sulphur, which, however, the inhabitants dare not 
venture to dig up, for fear of offending the tutelar genius 
“ of the place, they having found upon trial that he was 
<f not willing to spare it.”—The Kamtchadales, as well as 
the Japanese, have a dread of the hot springs in their coun¬ 
try, arising from a similar supposition that they are the 
abode of demons. Thus, speaking of the boiling fountains 
of Opalski, or Osernoi, situated nearly midway between the 
Lopatka and Bolshoiretsk , Martin Sauer observes, that the 
Kamtchadales suppose them to be the habitations of some 
demon, and make a trifling offering to appease his wrath $ 
without which, they say, he sends very dangerous storms. 
See the Account of an Expedition to the Northern Parts of 
Russia, by Commodore Billings , p. 303. 
