The temperatures of the hot springs were respectively 169°, 170°, 173°, and 190°; of the cold, 84° at 4 p.m., and 75° at 7 a.m. the following morning. The hottest is the middle of the five. The water of the cold spring is sweet but not good, and emits gaseous bubbles; it was covered with a green floating _Conferva._ Of the four hot springs, the most copious is about three feet deep, bubbles constantly, boils eggs, and though brilliantly clear, has an exceedingly nauseous taste. This and the other warm ones cover the bricks and surrounding rocks with a thick incrustation of salts.
_Confervæ_ abound in the warm stream from the springs, and two species, one ochreous brown, and the other green, occur on the margins of the tanks themselves, and in the hottest water; the brown is the best Salamander, and forms a belt in deeper water than the green; both appear in broad luxuriant strata, wherever the temp. is cooled down to 168°, and as low as 90°. Of flowering plants, three showed in an eminent degree a constitution capable of resisting the heat, if not a predilection for it; these were all _Cyperaceæ,_ a _Cyperus_ and an _Eleocharis,_ having their roots in water of 100°, and where they are probably exposed to greater heat, and a _Fimbristylis_ at 98°; all were very luxuriant. From the edges of the four hot springs I gathered sixteen species of flowering plants, and from the cold tank five, which did not grow in the hot. A water-beetle, _Colymbetes_(?) and _Notonecta,_ abounded in water at 112°, with quantities of dead shells; frogs were very lively, with live shells, at 90°, and with various other water beetles. Having no means of detecting the salts of this water, I bottled some for future analysis.[15]
[15] For an account of the _Confervæ,_ and of the mineral constituents of the waters, etc. see Appendix B.
On the following day I botanized in the neighbourhood, with but poor success. An oblique-leaved fig climbs the other trees, and generally strangles them: two epiphytal _Orchideæ_ also occur on the latter, _Vanda Roxburghii_ and an _Oberonia._ Dodders (_Cuscuta_) of two species, and _Cassytha,_ swarm over and conceal the bushes with their yellow thread-like stems.
I left Belcuppee on the 8th of February, following Mr. Williams’ camp. The morning was clear and cold, the temperature only 56°. We crossed the nearly dry broad bed of the Burkutta river, a noble stream during the rains, carrying along huge boulders of granite and gneiss. Near this I passed the Cholera-tree, a famous peepul by the road side, so called from a detachment of infantry having been attacked and decimated at the spot by that fell disease; it is covered with inscriptions and votive tokens in the shape of rags, etc. We continued to ascend to 1,360 feet, where I came upon a small forest of the Indian Olibanum (_Boswellia thurifera_), conspicuous from its pale bark, and spreading curved branches, leafy at their tips; its general appearance is a good deal like that of the mountain ash. The gum, celebrated throughout the East, was flowing abundantly from the trunk, very fragrant and transparent. The ground was dry, sterile, and rocky; kunker, the curious formation mentioned at p. 12, appears in the alluvium, which I had not elsewhere seen at this elevation.