3?2 
TRAVELS IN 
all to be a vifionary fcene, were it not for the fpark- 
ling ponds and lakes, which at the fame time gleam 
through the open forefts, before us and on every 
fid^, retaining them in the eye, until we come 
up with them. And at laft the imagination re- 
mains flattered and dubious, by their uniformity, 
being moftly circular or elliptical, and almofl fur- 
rounded with expanfive green meadows ; and al- 
ways a pi&urefque dark grove of live oak, magno- 
lia, gordonia, and the fragrant orange, encircling 
a rocky fnaded grotto of tranfparent water, on 
fome border of the pond or lake ; which, without 
the aid of any poetic fable, one might naturally 
fuppofe to be the facred abode or temporary refi- 
dence of the guardian fpirit ; but is actually the 
poiTelTion and retreat of a thundering abfolute cro* 
.codile. 
Arrived early in the evening at the Halfway 
pond, where we encamped and flayed all night. 
This lake fpreads iifelf in a fpacious meadow, be- 
neath a chain of elevated fand hills : the meet of 
water at this time was about three miles , in cir- 
cumference ; the upper end, juft under the hills, 
furrounded by a creicent of dark groves, which 
fhaded a rocky grotto. Near this place was a Hop- 
ing green bank, terminating by a point of flat 
rocks, which projected into the lake, and formed 
one point of the crefcent that partly furrounded the 
vaft grotto or bafon of tranfparent waters, which 
is called by the traders a fink-hole, a fingular kind 
of vortex or conduit, to the fubterranean recepta- 
cles of the waters ; but though the waters of thefe 
ponds, in the fumnier and dry feafons, evidently tend 
towards thefe finks, yet it is fo (lowly and gradually, 
as to be almofl: imperceptible. There is always a 
meandering 
