336 Voyage of the Novara. 



basin, of a deep green from innumerable almost microscopic 

 water plants, unfathomable, if we may trust common report, 

 and enclosed by a crater-like wall of lava-blocks. All along 

 the shore grew the tropical forest ; gigantic primeval trunks, 

 wildly festooned with wondrously luxuriant creepers, raised 

 their towering crests, their splendid coronets of leaves re- 

 flected in the calm mirror below, and casting the lake in 

 every corner into a dusky, shadowy obscurity of outline. 

 From the topmost branches of the trees were suspended 

 huge brown, indistinct-looking fruits. There was death- 

 like silence all around. Only at fitful intervals might be 

 distinguished the note of a bird, or the muttered growl of 

 distant thunder. We now got into our canoes and rowed 

 silently over the waters of the lake. As though to add to 

 the interest of the adventure, it came on to rain pretty 

 heavily. Some of the party followed the very practical 

 custom of the natives, who forthwith divested themselves of 

 their clothing, and left the rain to beat upon their naked 

 bodies, while they put their dresses under the seats of the 

 boat to prevent their being soaked. Fortunately the alli- 

 gators at no time made their appearance in such numbers as 

 the tales of the natives had led us to anticipate. We saw 

 but one of these monsters, apparently about 15 feet long, 

 who however sj^eedily dived out of our sight.* Our guides 



* The size attained by the alligator or ca3'man in the Laguna de Bay borders 

 on the incredible. Baron Von Huge!, in his work already referred to, tells of a 

 French settler in Jalla-Jalla (pronounce Halla-Halla), who assmed him that he had 



