Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 29.djvu/15

1860.] with a smooth fracture, but from the upper surface to a depth of several feet it is cleft in all directions, whereby the upper part is divided into rough blocks, possessing a spongy texture as well as countless sharp edges and corners.

The older lava, composing the rocks on the side of the valley and also the strata of the surrounding ridge is slightly different from this. The colour of its principal mass is a reddish grey, felspar and olivine crystals are embedded in it in the same proportions as before, and in addition small pieces of black augite of the granular kind, with conchoidal fracture. From underneath the black lava, where it terminates near the sea, issues a broad but thin sheet of hot water, mixing with the sea water between the pebbles of the beach. The Thermometer I had with me was not graduated high enough to measure its temperature, its highest mark being 104°F. (40°C.) The water where escaping from the rock must have been nearly at the boiling point, judging from the heat felt when the hands were dipped into it, or when the hot stones were touched. When bathing, we found the sea water warm for many yards from the entrance of the hot spring and to a depth of more than 8 feet. It is not impossible that a jet of hot steam or water may emerge from the rocks below the level of the sea. The hot water tasted quite fresh, and not saline as might have been expected, showing that it could not have been long in contact with the rocks.

We ascended to the base of the cone, passing along the sloping sides of the transverse valley through dry grass and brushwood or over sandy ridges, so long as the solidified stream of lava in the middle left us room to do so. At last we had ascend the rugged surface of the black lava itself, and cross the circular valley, which has about the same breadth as the transverse valley (not quite one-eighth of a mile), until we arrived at the base about half a mile from the sea. The cone rises from the lava accumulated in the circular valley, and its base is about 50 feet higher than the level of the sea, at a rough estimate. It is quite round and smooth, and the inclination of its sides is 40 degrees. No vegetation of any kind was visible along its surface. We turned to the left and went up from the north side, where the appearance of a ravine, some way up, only two or three feet deep and very narrow with some tufts of grass growing along it, promised an