TWO NATURAL WONDERS. The Home of the Satans.

Otago Witness, Issue 2199, 23 April 1896, Page 45

TWO NATURAL WONDERS. The Home of the Satans.

The greatest natural wonder in. Java, II not in tbe entire world, is the justly celebrated " Gheko Kamdka Gnmko," or " Home of the Hot Devile," known to the world as the "Island of Fire." This geological singularity is really a lake of boiling mud, situated at about tbe centra of the plains of Grobogana, and is called an island because tbe great' emerald sea of vegetation which

jrarrotmdß it gives it that appearance. The ** island" ia about two miles in circumference, and is ritaated at a* distance of almost exactly 50 miles from Solo. Near the centre of this geological freak immense columns of 'soft, hot mud may be seen continually rising and falling like great timbers thrust through the boiling substratum by giant hands and then again quickly withdrawn. Besides the phenomenon of the boiling mud columns there are scores of gigantic bubbles ot hot slime that fill up like huge balloons wad keep up a series of constant explosions, the intensity of the detonations varying with the 'size of the bubble. In times past, so the Javanese authorities say, there was a tall, 'spirelike column of baked mud on the west edge of the lake which constantly belched a pure stream of cold water, but this has long teen obliterated, and everything is now a Seething mass of babbling mud and slime, a marvel to tbe visitors who come from great distances to see it. . * THE BED LAKE. Lake Morat, in Switzerland, has a queer tabft of turning red about two or three times 'every ten years. It is a pretty lake, like mo3t 'of the sheets of water in that picturesque Country, and its peculiar freak is attributed 'to a disposition to celebrate the slaughter of Xtargundiana under Charles the Bold, on Jane ' SI, 1476. Bat the French «ay that it blushes lor the conduct of ths Swiis, who in that l.Jjattle gave the Burgundians no quarter. The " ipld fishermen of the lake, who catch enormous fish called silures that weigh- , 25 and 40 kilograms.gay when they ', see the-vraters of tbe lake reddening that it Is the blood of the Burgundians. Ab a. matter . of fact, some of .the bodies of the Burgundians ' killed in the battle were thrown into the lake, while others were tossed into a grave filled with quicklime. ' This historical .recollection .angered the Burgundian soldiers of the "victorious armies of the Republic of 1708 so much that they destroyed the monument raised in honour of their compatriots who {ell heroically in that battle, and Henri Martin very justly reproached them for that piece of vandalism. It would hardly do to Attribute the reddening of the waters of the lake to the blood of the soldiers of Charles the Bold. The colour is due simply to the presence in large quantities of little aquatic plants called by naturalists Oscillatoria rubescens. The curious thing about it is that .Lake Morat is the only lake in which this uurious growth is developed, and the peculiarity is beginning to interest scientific men.