TRAVELS IN 
1J2 
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 
fide, retaining them in the eye, until we come 
up with them. And at lad the imagination re- 
mains flattered and dubious, by their uniformity, 
being moftly circular or elliptical, and almofl: fur- 
rounded with expanflve green meadows; and al- 
ways a pidturefque dark grove of live oak, magno- 
lia, gordonia, and the fragrant orange, encircling 
a rocky {haded 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 reft- 
dence of the guardian fpirit; but is actually the 
poflfeflion 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 iake fp reads itfelf in a fpacious meadow, be- 
neath a chain of elevated fand hills: the fheet of 
water at this time was about three miles in cir- 
cumference ; the upper end, juft under the hills, 
furrounded by a crefcent of dark groves, which 
fhaded a rocky grotto. Near this place was a flop- . 
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 
waft grotto or bafon of tranfparent waters, which 
is called by the traders a link-hole, a Angular kind 
of vortex or conduit, to the fubterranean recepta- 
cles of the waters ; but though the waters of thefe 
ponds, in the hummer and dry feafons, evidently tend 
towards thefe finks, yet it is fo flowly and gradually, 
as to be almofl imperceptible. There is always a 
meandering 
