The first thing one notices about the hot springs of Hammam Mousketine
which I mentioned above, is clouds of steam coming up out of the
bushes at different points. Here you will find water bubbling up out
of the ground and through a small mound of hard white or yellow crust.
The water is boiling hot, and the crust is formed from salts and
chemicals contained in the water drying on the surface.
There are about a dozen of these springs and a large number of cones
or mounds which have been springs, and which have choked themselves up
or run dry.
Half a dozen of these cones, of about ten feet high, stand together in
a group, and the Arabs have a curious story about them, which I will
tell you in the next paragraph. Also close by is a great waterfall
about a hundred yards wide by fifty feet high, but all turned to stone
by the same process.
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