Sleeping in the Hot Springs.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 180, 22 April 1873, Page 7

Sleeping in the Hot Springs.

| The Hawke's Hay Herald lias lately repro- | tin ceil the lolloping extinct from a private Home letter which had been jaihlished in au English paper About a hundred milts iniand from the picturesque port and town of Is a] tier, a wonderful volcanic region logins, and extends for many a mile to tl o Easr. and Vi est. Hot springs arc abundant and quite common in that part of the country, and the waters are said to he medicinal, they are remarkable, at least; some of the boiling jets (geysers) rise to a hundred feet ni the air, tailing in sparkling cascades if scalding water. There are streams and pooh, and oft( n goodly-sized lakes, from 100 centigrade down toa nice and warm teinperatme for bathing in at any season. 1 remember, "’hen up in that country some years age, being awakened one very cold night by a peculiar noise and splashing in the hike, close to which our tents were pitched. Thinking it might he dudes or other waterfowl, which hover about these places in thousands, I cautiously got up, gnu in hand, expecting to hag a score or two in one shot, when, what do you think I saw there in the bright moo; - light! Dimly, through the steaming vapour, 1 discovered the bronzed forms of my hahdozen natives, all laying quietly side by side in the lake, with only the tips of their nosis out of the water. They had driven in small stakes, and iixed cioss-pieces between, well padded with fern, for tluir pillows, and intended and did go to sleep there for the remainder of the night. Their blankets were few and thin, I expect, so thev took the hot water for it, the cun mug rascals, that frosty night. We "‘ten used to sit up to our necks in the water thus ior hours in the winter evenings a;ter the toils of the day, then go to bed very ml and parboiled, but refreshed and indescribably sciene.”