The River of Blood.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20384, 12 October 1929, Page 4 (Supplement)

The River of Blood.

A MYSTERY OF HONDURAS

On© of tho most beautiful and remarkable of all New Zealand's phenomena is the famous Claret Pool in Waiora Valley, a few miles from Wairakei. This pool is & deep, rich red colour, and not far from it are green pools, golden-brown pools and a lovely blue lake. Waiora Valley is jnst as interesting in its way as the better known Geyser Valley at Wairakei, for while there is thermal activity elsewhere in New Zealand, there is no other Valley of Coloured Lakes, like that which entrances every visitor to our thermal wonderland. * .

New Zealand, however, is not the only country that possesses tho phenomena of coloured springs and lakes. In a remote corner of the Republic of Honduras, is a stream, which, at certain seasons-of the year, turns a sinister blood-red colour. Tho spring has its source in a dark cavern into which no Indian will ever venture, believing it to be haunted by the spirits of tho departed. The Indians say that tho crimson colour cames from the blood of bats, which live in millions in the dark caverns, and which fight and tear one another to pieces by thousands. The Indians believe that at death, all people who have lived an evil life on earth turn into bats, hence no power will induce

tho superstitious tribesmen to venture into the cav?s. Scientists are rather sceptical about the bat theory, suggesting that the phenomenon is caused by the stream passing through mineralised red soil. There are other mysteries in Honduras besides that of the River of Blood. One well-known explorer who recently toured Central America states that (here are thousands of square miles of jungle, swamp and mountain, where no white man ha? ever set fool. There are primitive Indian trilics wlicsc culture has not yet reached that of the Stone and lrou Ages. In one district, during the wet sonson, swarms of fish three to seven inches in length fa!! from the sky. The natives eagerly collect them, and they are ronsidered a great delicacy. The Indians call this the Feast of the Fishes.