CHAP. IV.] ST. THOMAS TO BERMUDAS. 305 
gin like a mirror. We clambered down the slope, and as the 
eye became more accustomed to the obscurity, the lake stretched 
farther back. There was a crazy little punt moored to the 
shore, and, after lighting candles, Captain Nares rowed the gov- 
ernor back into the darkness, the candles throwing a dim light 
for a time—while the voices became more hollow and distant— 
upon the surface of the water and the vault of stalactite, and 
finally passing back as mere specks into the silence. 
After landing the governor on the opposite side, Captain 
Nares returned for me, and we rowed round the weird little 
lake. It was certainly very curious and beautiful; evidently a 
huge cavity out of which the calcareous sand had been washed 
or dissolved, and whose walls, still to a certain extent perme- 
able, had been hardened and petrified by the constant percola- 
tion of water charged with carbonate of lime. From the roof 
innumerable stalactites, perfectly white, often several yards long 
and coming down to the delicacy of knitting-needles, hung in 
clusters; and wherever there was any continuous crack in the 
roof or wall, a graceful, soft-looking curtain of white stalactite 
fell, and often ended, much to our surprise, deep in the water. 
Stalagmites also rose up in pinnacles and fringes through the 
water, which was so exquisitely still and clear that it was some- 
thing difficult to tell where the solid marble tracery ended and 
its reflected image began. In this cave, which is a considerable 
distance from the sea, there is a slight change of level with the 
tide, sufficient to keep the water perfectly pure. The mouth 
of the cave is overgrown with foliage, and every tree is draped 
and festooned with the fragrant Jasminum gracile, mingled 
not unfrequently with the “ poison ivy ” (22hus toxicodendron). 
The Bermudians, especially the dark people, have a most exag- 
gerated horror of this bush. They imagine that if one touch 
it or rub against it, he becomes feverish, and is covered with an 
eruption. This is no doubt entirely mythical. The plant is 
very poisonous, but the perfume of the flower is rather agree- 
