Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/252

228 around, and the potatoes for our supper were boiled in one of the natural caldrons, free of charge. To boil vegetables in one of these springs all you have to do is to enclose them in a net of hemp or flax and lower them into the water. When they have been there long enough take them out, and that's all there is about it. What a nice thing it would be to have a natural hot spring at your door, provided you could escape the other inconveniences connected with it!

"We bathed in a pool and also in the lake, the latter, though warm, being less so than the pool. The ground was warm, and made the atmosphere of the house too hot for comfort; and altogether we passed an uncomfortable night. Next morning we were up bright and early, to look at the terraces; and of all the wonderful things in the world, there are few that can surpass them.

"The White Terraces are on this side of the little lake, and the Pink Terraces on the other. Imagine, if you can, a series of irregular steps, of silver or alabaster, or polished marble, about three hundred feet from side to side, and rising about two hundred feet from the shore of the lake. These steps or terraces have been formed by the crystallization of the silica contained in the hot water in the boiling lake above; the hot water holds it in solution, and as its temperature falls the silica is released and deposited.

"In the sunlight the terraces glistened and sparkled like a collection of all the precious stones in the world, and the picture was fascinating in the extreme. We ascended from the base to the edge of the boiling lake, where the terraces begin. Our guides cautioned us that we must expect to walk continually in the water which flowed over the terraces but as the surface is soft and smooth we doffed our boots and encased our feet in moccasins, or shoes of untanned skin. The water at the bottom of the terraces is tepid; but each successive stage finds it hotter, and at last it is too much so for comfort. On one terrace after the other you find delightful tubs suitable for bathing; we should have bathed in them, but had been told to wait for the Pink Terraces, on the other side of the lake, where the baths are finer. There is just enough softness to the surface formed by the silica to make it pleasant to the touch and entirely safe to walk on without danger of slipping.

"Not only are the terraces beautiful, but the ornamentation which has been made by the hand of Nature, busily working here through many centuries, is beautiful in the extreme. The hanging ornaments and cornices at the outer edges of the terraces and on the rims of the baths surpass the work of the most gifted designer or the most vivid