*72- TRAVELS IN' 
all to be a vifxonary fcene, were it not for the fpark- 
ing ponds and lakes, which at the fame time gleam 
through the open forefts, before us and on every* 
Hide* 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 altnofc fur- 
rounded with expahfive green meadows ; and al- 
ways a pidlurefque' dark grove of live oak, magno- 
lia, gordonia, and the fragrant orange, encircling 
at rocky fhaded grotto of transparent water, on 
feme border of the pond or lake ; which, without 
the aid of any poetic fable, one might naturally 
feppofe to be the facred abode or temporary refi- 
dence of the guardian fpirit ; but is adluahy the 
pofteftion 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 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 
surrounded by a crefcent of dark groves, which 
fhaded a rocky grotto. Near this place was a (lop- 
ing green bank, terminating by a point of fi at 
racks, 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 
4>f vortex or conduit, to the fubterranean recep- 
tacles of the waters ; but though the waters of thefe 
ponds, in the fummer and dry feafons, evidently tend 
.towards thefe links, yet it is fo (lowly and gradually, 
js to be aimed imperceptible® There is always a 
meandering 
