number of boiling ponds; some of them of very large
dimensions. We forded a river flowing swiftly toward the lake, which is
fed by the snows melting in the valleys of the Tongariro. In many
places, in the bed of this river, the water boils up from the
subterranean springs below, suddenly changing the temperature of the
stream, to the imminent risk of the individual who may be crossing.
Along whole tracts of land I heard the water boiling violently beneath
the crust over which I was treading. It is very dangerous travelling,
for, if the crust should break, scalding to death must ensue. I am told
that the Rotuma natives, who build their houses over the hot springs in
that district, for the sake of constant warmth at night, frequently meet
with accidents of this kind: it has happened that when a party has been
dancing on the floor, the crust has given way, and the convivial
assembly has been suddenly swallowed up in the boiling caldron beneath!
Some of the ponds are ninety feet in circumference, filled with a
transparent pale-blue boiling water, sending up columns of steam.
Channels of boiling water run along the ground in every direction, and
the surface of this calcareous flat around the margin of the boiling
ponds covered with beautiful incrustations of lime and alum, in some
parts forming flat saucer-like figures. Husk of maize, moss, and
branches of vegetable substances were incrusted in the same manner. I
also observed small deep holes, or wells, here and there among the grass
and rushes, from two inches to as many feet in diameter, filled with
boiling mud, that rises in large bubbles as thick as hasty pudding;
these mud pits sent up a strong sulphureous smell. Although the ponds
boiled violently, I noticed small flies walking swiftly, or rather
running on their surface.

The steam that rises from these boiling springs is visible for many
miles, appearing like the jets of a number of steam engines.'--Vol. ii.,
pp. 113, 114, 115.

FLY LEAVES FROM THE LIFE OF A SOLDIER.

PART I.--SCALES.

We were in the _three_-months.

There! I feel as proud of that as one of the Old Guard would have been
in saying: 'I was of the Army of Italy.'

There is but one _three_-months (pronounced with the accent strongly
resting on the numeral adverb, after the Hibernian). All others are
spurious imitations. I refer to the early days of the war: the dark days
that followed the first fall of Sumter, when our Southern friends h