Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1877 — The Boiling Lake on the Island of Dominica. [ARTICLE]

The Boiling Lake on the Island of Dominica.

«**« out of Roee*a and set oar horses’ Leeds sad our owcroutward, in quest of tbe "Boiling Lake.” Our way led flrst up the beautiful Boeeeu Valley, with Us deep ctlfls and overshadowing wood*, mingled with the bright yellow of ripening cene fields and the darker foliage of oocoa or coflVe plantations, with small Karopean residences or negro huts peeping out here and there, till we came in sight of the great waterfalls, each a hundred feet tn height, by which the waters of the Roseau River «g* themselves headlong from the central range. Higher and higher wo climbed the mountain side, amid that scenery which description has so often attempted, but can fever realize for those Who have not themselves witnessed it—the scenery of the West Indian tropics, whsre the nohlest forest growth that fancy can picture, mixed with tree-fern and palm, over canopies, bank and dell, thick nitilted with fern, golden, silver maidenlair. every lovely variety of leaf and tint, amid red-flowered ballsier*, Vhite-blos-aomed arums, and a thousand other gems of Flora’s crown, the whole lit up by the purest sunlight, and glittering as it waved in the glad morning breeze. As the ground continued to rise, the forest trees diminished in height and size, while, on the contrary, tnc undergrowth of bush, often troublesome from its thorns and prickles, continued to Increase till we reached the margin of a deep ravine, down which a rapid stream rushed on its wny to join the Roseau River. Here the character of our inarch changed, the continuous slope np which we had climbed thus far giving place to a succession of the abruptest gullies that it has ever been my lot to traverse. * • * A little further «m we plunged again into a labyrinth of small trees thickly planted in a deep layer of decaying vegetable matter, intermixed with slender bamboo tufts, where we were hardly able to make ih» rifflit direction of our liath amid the maze of green young trunks, till from in front a light suddenly broke in on us, us though there was nothing but open sky before, and so. in ledtfn wss. All At Once, with hardly a warning, we stepped uut of the continuous forest right upon the edge of a sheer precipice several hundred feet in height; while below us lay a huge valley, or rather gulf, reeking in every part* with thick, white sulphur >vapors that rose from the depths and curled up the bare sides of the abyss. Holding on to each olhc.’s hands, or to the shrubs Chat grew nearest the edge, we leaned over as far as we dared, gazing down into the steamy chasm below, and resembling in a very general wsy the Dantes sod Virgils of Flaxman’s statuesque outline, where they bend over the margin of Male bolge, it may be, or of the awful bridge Chat spans the flaming gulf. The “Black Country” of Wolverhampton notoriety is a weird place, and suggests weird ideas enough, whether traversed by night or by aty; but it Is “ mild domestic” compared to Nature’s own “ White Country,” the sulphur region of Dominica. A world like this abandoned to volcanic agencies, as the moon 4s supposed to have been at some unlucky opoou of her existence, would be a more fitting abode than even the most biblical Babylon for the satyrs, dragons and other doleful creature# of the prophet, a throne for Arimeces himself. We clambered tor an hour or so, first across a knife-like dividing ridge, and then among the broken lioilows of a second crater or tovfiriere, considerably larger in dimensions than the first, but ataaparativety quiescent; a silent, burnt out region of ash and sulphur, surrounded by high bare walls of pumice and volcanic crag. Little steam was here visible, nor were any explosions to be heard from underneath; but the many streams of white, yellow, red or black water that pierced and furrowed the spongy crust in every direction wore all hot, and told of fires yet :moidering at no great distance •below. In front of us rose a bare ridge •of heaped-up pumice and ash, shafting ofi the southerly segment of the great -crater as though with a partition wall; ..and, Irom behind its range, vast columns «*f steam whitened against the dazxling •blue of the cloudless sky. We took the intervening barrier at a run, and checked ouraoives short at the top; a few steps more would have sent us head foremast into the boiling lake.

▲ strange sight to see, and not leas awful than strange. Fenced in by steep, mostly, indeed, perpendicular, banks, varying from sixty to a hundred feet high, cut out in ash and pumice, the lake rages and roan like a wild beast in its cage; the surface, to which such measurements as we coaid make assigned about two hundred yards in length by more than half •the same amount m breadth, is that of a giant seething cauldron, covered with .rapid steam,"through which, when the .veil is for a moment blown apart by the •mountain breeze, appears a confused mass of tossing waves, crossing and clashing in every direction—a chaos of boiling waters. Toward the center, where the ebullition is at its fiercest, geyser-like masses are being constantly thrown up to die height of several feet, not on one exact spot, but shifting from side to side, each fresh burst being preceded by a noise like that of a cannon fired off at some great depth below, while lesser Jets often suddenly make their appearance nearer the sides of the lake. What the .general depth of water may be would be Difficult to ascertain; but a line stretched out over the edge from the ead of a pole indicates a sheer descent of fifty or sixty feet within a couple of yards’ distance from foe shore. The heat of the water, where it beats in seething restlessness on the cliff, is 185 deg. F.; we tied a thermometer to a stick and found the surface temperature at the distance of a few. feet further on to be almost 300 deg. F. The height of the lake above the sea ia a little over 2,400 feet, an elevation which at an average atmosphere temperature of 84 deg. gives the boiling point for water at 907 deg. F., or near it The Take is evidently supplied for the most part from springs within its own circuit; but a little stream, formed by the union of two small mountain rivulets, runs down from the heights to toe nsrto; the water of the brook is cold, and may con. tribute aomewhtt, especially in toe rainy the highest'wider line along the** clifik[ marked partly by erosion, partly by a bright yellow band of sulphur deposit, was it the epoch of oar visit, that is, at toe •conclusion of the dry season in Dominica, only a few Inches above toe actual water level, an additional proof that the lake is almost wholly supplied from below. Is fact, the principal effect of a heavy rain shower or an argumeated inflow is •hhl to ha a sodden increase in toe violence of the surface action, the result doubtless pf the shock produced by the meeting of IklJ torremC by the stones and earth

brought down with it in its descent, has formed a slope which, though sleep, permits of s cautious approach to the water’s edge; everywhere else the cliffs are absolutely perpendicular, bat gradually leaeen In height toward the southern extremity, where a gate-like rest has been formed, through which the waters rush out in a scalding torrent and hear their heat with them far down the mountain sides, as they seek the Eastern Sea at Mulatto Point. No vegetation, except the dreary clusia with a aingy kind of mess, and not more cheerful looking growth of pitcairnia, exists within the immediate range of the heated sulphurous vapors; but on looking round we see the farther background closed in by noble forests. Here we remained, as long as prudence and the mindfiilness of the long and difficult route that lav behind us permitted, in wondering delignt; tried to walk round the lake along the cliffs, but could not manage it; took measurements; tested the heat of the water; irritated the geyserlike action, where not too far from tbe margin, by throwing down stones, which were followed, after nearly a minute’s interval by the usual result of a more violent ebullition than customaiy; and, lastly, attempted sketches from several points of view; but found tbe attempt to be a Eursuit of art under difficulties, amid the finding steam and pungent vapor.—Macmillan't Magazine.