62 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



cold, mineral and pure water by turns, into a basin (at 

 the immediate base of a high mountain), with heaps 

 of sulphur-stones scattered over a smooth floor of bi- 

 tumen, with a jet of steam escaping here and there 

 from a hole or fissure in its quaking crust ; up the 

 banks of a little stream of sulphur water, subterranean 

 at times, leaving the rivers behind us, and having a 

 steep bank before us, which we quickly scaled, and 

 there revealed to our gaze, lay the Lake. 



My first feeling was that of disappointment, for the 

 surface of the lake, usually so turbulent, was placid, 

 save in the center a slight movement — more from the 

 escape of gas than from ebullition — disturbed it, and 

 sent ever-expanding wavelets to the shore. It is sunk 

 in a huge basin, which it has hollowed out for itself. 

 Undoubtedly, it was once a spring, or geyser, which, 

 bv the volume and violence of its flow, increased and 

 deepened the aperture through which it escaped, until 

 it reached its present dimensions. 



The height of its surrounding walls I estimate 

 at from eighty to one hundred feet, and its di- 

 ameter at from three hundred to four hundred. As 

 there have been no accurate measurements — indeed, 

 the total number of white men who have looked upon 

 it is not a score — its area will long be a matter of 

 speculation only. The banks are of ferruginous earth, 

 with stones and rocks imbedded, as nearly perpendic- 

 ular as their consistency will allow, and constantly 

 caving and falling in. 



Two streams of cold water fall into the lake on the 

 north, above which rise high hills. Down the bed of 

 one of these we found a place to leap. My apparatus 

 was passed down, and I at once proceeded to secure a 



