A TERRIBLE TARN IN YORKSHIRE. (Fishing Gazette.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2402, 15 March 1900, Page 59

A TERRIBLE TARN IN YORKSHIRE. (Fishing Gazette.)

Yorkshire has its " bottomless lake " m Gormire Tarn, and its " evil lake " in Randay Mere, once noted for its breed of fine medicinal leeches, but now for " the pure water -which it provides in the capacity of reservoir to Whitby visitors. Of Gormire' s bottomlessness, more hereafter. Its 'waters teem with perch, crayfish, roach, dace, and carp. This is the place for rising Waltonians to be initiated into the angling mysteries on those golden evenings when the bold perch show their noses above tho water like the fishes that listened to St. •Anthony's sermon. C4rave stories are told of the- voracious monsters that inhabit the deeps of this tarn. There is nothing funny about the fact that pike of dimensions simply enormous are spoken of with fear and trembling, that Thirsk and Helms ley tradesmen hiva disappeared without taking leave of their creditors, and that visitors to the inn at Sutton have vanished without, returning to claim their empty panniers, all of whom are ?aid to have "found a last abiding place in the capacious pouch of some finny .ienizen of the tarn. The cool is well known to those who have watched Gormire, thoxigh it does neaiiy all its swimming and diving by twilight, hiding itself by .daylight among the tas&elled reeds.

To-day one might think it heaveiJy to be pulling an oar or floating lazily on the tranquil bosom of this secluded crater-like basin. Of course, abo it could be found cr.ly with difficulty, but say that one could be found, what horrible risks should I nm. For Gormire. has its profound mysteries, which are calculated to surpass the understanding of the most erudite professor your should care to send. Sometimes head-like clouds, as grave as the Spinx, creep out of the *ky, mysterious breezes whirl round these confining hills, and the enveloping shadows have stealth in their advance ; then Gormire is eerie, indeed — another Wastwater, as it has been seen at the Royal Academy. It may not be irrelevant to remark here that in New Zealand, 30 miles from the Bay of Plenty, North I&land, there is probably the most awful lake in the world. Though covering only 50 acres of ground, and i" depth scarcely more than 12ft, this lake is yet more horrible than the rivers of Let/he and Styx. The water itself is never transparent, but greeny-yellow. It boils like

a cauldron, and keeps up a perpetually deafening roar with the steam from the surrounding blow- holes. Explorers Avho have crossed the lake bring no tradition about its finny denizens, for no chimera, aimadilla, or salamander could exist there. The upsetting of the boat would mean instantaneous death to the explorer, and Avithin a few hours his body would be absolutely destroyed by the hydrochloric acid. A boat drops to pieces under the corrosive action of this acid if used tAvo or three times. These are realities Avhich pale the traditional terrors of cities buiiecl under *Lakes Semerwater and Gormire, in Yorkshire, as seen by anglers Avhile dozing in their cockboat.

A certain angler Avho once resolved to fish Gormire from a boat tells how, Avhen he had drifted towards the middle, an unaccountable fit of shivering came over him. and he Avas constrained to return at once to the shore. This is no old angler's tale concocted for ths benefit of the piscatorial people at the village inn, but a pure and simple fact, perhaps to be accounted for scientifically. May there not just possibly be someAA'kere in the centre of the tarn a miniature maelstrom, Avhich causes a vermicular agitation of the boat, powerful enough to tell directly on the nerves of its occupant? It has for long been said that the tarn is charged Avith a magnetic current, always felt by those who try to swim across it, and the Captain Webbs of swimming romance who liaA^e tackled Gormire are credited with having said that they only achieved their task Avith difficulty, simple as it Avould seem, but the exact nature of the sinister power they had to contend against remains quite unexplained.

Another startling fact I heard vouched for only the other week by an old native of the district, who has often fished the tarn from a boat, is that an ordinary brick, tied to a line, Avill go to the bottom of the tarn in any part you like to try except one, and there the line falls slack at about 15ft, certainly before the brick has plumbed its depth. This report is not to be laughed at, far-fetched as may seen the only feasible theory which makes for the solution of such an extraordinary fact. It may be that one of the spring supplies of the tarn bursts out of its bed with the pressure of a poAverful irydrant, and thus holds the porous brick in suspension betAreen the still waters and the columnar outburst at the very spot where a,n under-current enforces its distribution.

Various attempts have, it is said, been made to fathom the centre of the tarn — so far Arithout success. The farmer's Arife at the adjoining Rigg House told me that it neA'er had bssn bottomed, for it had no bottom. Such a unique tarn deserves to find its way into metrical romance. No wonder tradition has demonstrated that the waters could never be dried up. Ths folloAving distich used to be in the mouths of the country folk : — Gorrnire l'iggs shall be coA r cred with hay The White Mare o' Whissun-cliff will bear it

away. But as a matter of fact, Gormire, like all other lakes in the United Kingdom, has actually been fathomed, and may easily be re-fathomed by either the neAV or old method. The depth in the deepest part is only 27ft.