THE MUSEUM. 



:55 



maiden made an appointment to meet 

 her lover at a certain spot in the coun- 

 try road. At the appointed hour she 

 was there, but the faithless lover did 

 not arrive and she waited from day to 

 day in e.xpectation of his appearance. 

 But he never came and she finally died 

 there; then Chicory sprang up and 

 bloomed where she had fallen — an em- 

 blem of faithfulness, perhaps. X. 



Nassau's Phosphorescent Lake. 



Having in remembrance old Samp- 

 son Stamp, of Key West, the discov- 

 erer of the sea gardens at Nassau, we 

 took a pilot and sailboat the following 

 morning and sailed some four miles up 

 the channel. There we embarked in 

 a rowboat with a glass bottom, made 

 by inserting therein plates of thick 

 glass, through which the bottom of the 

 sea spread out before us like dry land. 

 A strange feeling crept over me and in 

 imagination I fancied myself with Jules 

 Verne on the voyage of Twenty Thous- 

 and Leagues Under the Sea. We 

 could see all the little fishes, minnows 

 one inch long and larger kinds one 

 foot, two feet and three feet in length, 

 some white and black and blue, be- 

 sides many angel fish, all yellow like a 

 canary, with bright blue fins and tail, 

 swam by beneath us. As the ripe 

 wheat fields in summer sway to the 

 breeze, so there in the submarine cur- 

 rents waved great bunches of fan leaf 

 coral, purple, yellow and white. The 

 water was clear as air, and, pointing 

 to some especially beautiful specimens 

 of rock and fans, our little darkey dived 

 over, and, like the fish, we could see 

 him swimming down until at last, 

 clutching the growth with two hands 

 and feet firmly braced against the cor- 

 al, he gave a tug and away he came to 



the top, fan in hand. Indeed, God 

 hath wrought marvelous things in this 

 world of His, but nothing of greater 

 bewitching fancy than the sea gardens 

 of Nassau. 



When night came and before the 

 moon was up a drive of two miles back 

 on New Providence Island brought us 

 to a most interesting work of nature. 

 A lake some 1,000 feet long and 300 

 feet wide lay quiet and black as any 

 other sheet of water at night might do. 

 But once in a rowboat and shoved off 

 from shore what a mighty change was 

 wrought! Two small out-swimmers, 

 the hue of the surrounding darkness, 

 accompanied our boat of fire, for such 

 it seemed. Like two human torches 

 our darkies swam by our side as in a 

 cloud of phosphorescent fire. At the 

 slightest disturbance the whole sur- 

 rounding water lit up like molten sil- 

 ver. Each boy's toes and fingers 

 were as though the sun shone on them, 

 and fish darted through the quiet wat- 

 er like skyrockets, leaving a glittering 

 trail behind. The light was so vivid I 

 could see the time by my watch, and 

 when a wave was sent upward with 

 the oar the falling drops were like blue 

 tinted pearls. The movements of our 

 boat made enough light to plainly show 

 the bottom, for the water is from ths 

 ocean and as clear as all that which 

 nature makes to flow about those love- 

 ly Bahamas. Enticed by the water's 

 warmth and the hot night my friend 

 and I went in swimming, but only for 

 a few minutes. From this swim comes 

 a story hard to believe, but as true as 

 Gospel. That night, as was my cus- 

 tom before turning in, I went to the 

 bathroom, which I could easily darken, 

 to change some photo plates in my 

 holders. When about to pull the 

 slides I noticed the phosphorescence, 

 which I had brought from the lake, 

 shining from my bare feet and giving 

 so much white light I had to cover 

 them with a towel before I dared ex- 

 pose the plates to what a moment be- 

 fore had been intense darkness — For- 

 est and Stream. 



