Six miles further, and our traveller entered another valley, where, from
the sulphur-springs and hills, rose numerous columns of smoke. Ascending
the neighbouring hills, she saw a truly remarkable scene: basins filled
with bubbling waters, and vaporous shafts leaping up from the fissures in
the hills and plains. By keeping to windward, she was able to approach
very near these phenomenal objects; the ground was lukewarm in a few
places, and she could hold her hand for several minutes at a time over
the cracks whence the vapour escaped. No water was visible. The roar
and hiss of the steam, combined with the violence of the wind, made a
noise so deafening that she was glad to quit the scene, and feel a safer
soil beneath her feet. It seemed to her excited fancy as if the entire
mountain were converted into a boiling caldron.
Descending into the plain, she found there much to interest her. Here a
basin was filled with boiling mud; there, from another basin, burst forth
a column of steam with fearful violence. Several hot springs bubbled and
bubbled around. "These spots," says our traveller, "were far more
dangerous than any on the hills; in spite of the utmost caution, we often
sank in above our ankles, and drew back our feet in dread, covered with
the damp exhalations, which, with steam or boiling water, also escaped
from the opening.
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