Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1875 — Boiling Lake in Dominica. [ARTICLE]

Boiling Lake in Dominica.

The announcement of the discovery of a boiling lake in the Island of Dominica, or Dominique; was made in these columns a few weeks ago. Since then the Trinidad Chronicle has published an account of a vjisit to the spring bv Mr. H. Prestoe, Superintendent of the Trinidad Botanic Gardens. The lake lies in the mountains behind the village of Roseau, and in a village abounding in solfataras. It is said to be two miles in circumference, and on its north and south shores is inclosed with precipitous banks some sixty feet in height. The temperature of the lake ranges from 180 deg. to 190 deg. Fahr. The point of ebullition varies somewhat, but consists pf a water rising from two to four feet above the general surface and sometimes divides into three smaller cones. No detonations occur, but during the ebullition the whole surface of the lake is-violently agitated. The water is colored a deep, dull gray, and is highly charged with sulphur and decomposed rock. A sulphurous vapor rises with equal density over the entire lake, there being no sudden ejection of gas at the point of ebullition. The outlet of the lake is constantly deepening and lowering the level of the water, hence Mr. Prestoe conjectures that the lake will ultimately be changed into a geyser. The hanks of the lake are also constantly crumbling, and tlieir fall will in time fill up the basin of the geyser and resolve it into innumerable solfataras. No bottom was found with a plummet line of 195 feet .dropped down Ten feet from the shore of the lake— Chicago Tribune.