" Further on there
were a few more log-huts, the "dependence" of the hotel itself. The
bathing season was over, so hosts and guests had alike departed. This
must be "roughing it" with a vengeance, I should say; but my guide told
me that very "high-born" people came here to be cured.
It is a favourite place, too, for some who desire the last cure of all
for life's ills; a single breath of the gaseous exhalations is death.
One cleft in the hill is called the "Murderer;" so fatal are the fumes
that even birds flying over it are often known to drop dead! The
elevation of Mount Buedos is only 3800 feet; there are several caves
immediately below the highest point. The principal cave is ten feet high
and forty feet long, the interior being lower than the opening. A
mixture of gases is exhaled, which, being heavier than the atmosphere,
fills it up to the level of the entrance; and when the sun is shining
into the cave, one can see the gaseous fumes swaying to and fro, owing
to the difference of refraction.
I experienced a sensation which has often been noticed here before. On
entering the cave, and standing for some minutes immersed in the gas,
but with my head above it, I had the feeling of warmth pervading the
lower limbs. I might have believed myself to be in a warm bath up to
the chest. This is a delusion, however, for the gaseous exhalation is
pronounced by experimenters to be cooler, if anything, than the air; I
suppose they mean the air of an ordinary summer day.
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