A SOMBROUS LAKE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1618, 4 March 1903, Page 79 (Supplement)

A SOMBROUS LAKE.

(By a Banker.)

Near the west coast of one of the islands forming that which is well named the Riviera of the ..world, that lovely. British appanage, the; W est Indies, may be seen one* of the strangest of the .mainy wonderful! maiwels of. nature.. Landing bn the surf-laved shore the first thought of, the traveller is probably to take the opportunity of indulging in a bathe in the glistening sfea. If, however, he does venture .to da this he should, not omit to take a . good stick with him, for probably he Will soon be/surrounded by a flock of, great, unwieldly' pelicans, larger than swans, who appear to resent this intrusion upon their domain:, and open wide their gigantic beaks as though they would like to devour him. ,

Howe driven away these angry and discordant visitants, he pro/ ceeds inland for a mile or two through the. ■ most glorious of Nature’s flower' gardens. Tall and stately palms, their

long and featheiy .fronds hanging gfaceffilly down ; - scarlet hibiscus //shrubs;•/ magnificent golden * allamandas. A or I lnauve-clad / bougfitmUia®, or many an- ( other: m^oificent, and gorgefius .flowering ; exotic luxuriate in the /rich soil, and decorate' the path with a glowing . adoriiinent ///of. v- loveliness®;. while to; give an added charm to this : -eartMy/,;par^s©“‘ :: flobks / of / brilliantly / painted humming glittering in their bright irrid'escent/ metallic hues flit gaily;/froin--bough-'-’to bough. “ - : But now a strangely 'weird and sombre spectacle:-bursts upon the view. A stygian lake, black as. night, on whose leaden, sullen ; / surface no wind, ever raises Wave or ripple; nor blast of hurricane ever causes a rolling billow, though here and there fountains of jet black fluid rise from the heavy‘surface/* many feet high in the air, causing cones or craters to forifi/for a short time upon the surface 'of the unctuous liquid.- But no boat could row thereon, no gallant ship could plough her way through the viscid, uliginous Tartarean lake,. For it is fed from beneath, not from above. Its source is not the rains and

’, tlie/storms, but a great boiling -caldron. jdeep;downmthh/:dbpthsofthe/earth;-/ : wheie in a f brmer/aeonvast forests /of ' primeval trees /grew in rank luxuriance their sap mow being distilled in/that / plutonic laboratory of , ed up into. the great. black reservoir / which We are/contemplatifigj.a lake, not: '/• of water, but of pitch;. But though so black, yet it is beautifuls Sfiihetimes; when its surface is partly, solidified, studded with temporary, flower-bedeck- V ed islets, which/ later ofi are absorbed/ and sink in the viscid' fluid: sometimes but a/sfiUen“jel“black: exj^se;/but always fringed with its florally adorned border of /shrubs and graceful palms, like a coal-black /diamond in a setting : .of gems. ; • /•' . . * -/_ / \ .■ Audi as We survey this sombrou^ lake our thoughts , revert with a sbucj/- - der to that pit of the black/ v ness of darkness, thaib realm ox remorse reserved for those who/forget their God.*,, But for these who serve Hiin, and Whose Saviour/ is J the Son of God, who*: gay e. Himself for them, it has no terrors; for they know that they are safe through. \ His Sufferings.' ;/ -