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, 
by 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 
