Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-10-13
4 STRANGE COUNTRY.

Visiting innumerable springs, we passed
the base of mountain about one.third of a
mile long and three hundred feet high, the
side of which was honey-combed with smok
ing and steaming openings so close together
and the crust so thin that even the Maoris
dare not venture to climb the hillside.
Leaving this remarkable place, which is
suggestive of traditional region where un-
quietspirits are remanded, we passed cave,
the entrance to which was formed by two
large stone posts and heavy stone cap, and
the interior walled up similarly it was
quite small and very pleasantly warm, and
is said to have been the birthplace of some
distinguished Maori chief.
One of the features of these remarkable
springs and geysers, was boiling spring
about eight feet in diameter, in rock recess,
which seemed indisposed to perform while
we were there, but after several false alarms
and waiting about twenty minutes, it burst
forth with volume of boiling water sever
to twenty feet in the air-making us, anx-
ious walters, beat hasty retreat into the
brush out of harms way. Thence descend
ing the hill to sort of mud flat, we came
into the valley of Rotokanapanapu, re-
gion of mud volcanoes, native and dead,
presenting deplorable condition of irrita-
ted dry and wet mud and dirt in all forms.
There was the same gurgling, vomiting and
spewing that we saw in other places.
One of these mud volcanoes, re Huka,
spews forth very plastic and fine paste,
which the natives eat and enjoy. 1t
tastes like flour paste, very slightly sweet
ened. do not like it, and doubt if it is
fattening. We were by this time quite
hungry, but this edible mud did not tempt
us, and we moved on to the margin of
Lake Rotomahana, where lunch was wait
ing US. The Maoris had cooked potatoes
and fresh water crabfish for us in the steam
of the boiling springs, covering the opening
with cross sticks, placing the potatoes, etc.,
on those and covering the whole with grass,
which sufficiently confines the steam. 1 sat
down on fiat stone, and, enjoying my
lunch and the surroundings, gave myself
up to the quiet pleasure of the occasion,
when felt an increasing warmth where
was sitting and suddenly had to spring
from my seat, an unexpected burst of steam
from under the rock giving me the hint to
leave. Lunch finished, we stepped into a
canoe of the flimsiest kind. The party con-
sisted of ten whites and natives. All but
the paddlers squatted down in the bottom
of the canoe, and brought the edge almost
to the level with the water.-San Francisco
Bulletin.
NATURAL BRIDGE OF VIRGINIA.-A
sudden turn to the right and directly ahead
loomed up the Natural Bridge in bold and
rugged outlines against the western sky,
lightened with all the glories Of the south
ern sunset. Imagine an immense mass of
solid rock, some forty-feet thick and fifty
feet broad, spanning a chasm seventy-fve
feet in width at height of 2l0 feet. On
the eastern side is a jagged place where an
immense mass of rock has fallen. When
it fell it is impossible to say, but it must
have fallen centuries ago, as not a particle
of debris remains in the chasm below. The
rock is blush limestone streaked with
faint lines of white. The grain is very
fine and firm, and one loses at first the i'm
pressiveness and majestic grandeur of the
bridge in speculating on the tremendous
force that scooped out, as it were, the i'm
mense mass of rock and earth that at some
time filled the glen.
On the under side of the bridge, and al
most in the centre, the lichens and moses
have so grown as to almost perfectly repre-
sent the American eagle with outstretched
wings clasping the shield in his talons.
Well-authenticated records state that this
peculiar growth existed in the middle of the
eighteenth century. Standing about 100
feet west of the bridge, and looking back
under it a we'll defined profile likeness of a
young woman may be seen. From the
road above, the bridge can not be seen, nor
is there any indication of its existence, un-
less one leaves the roadway and goes about
twenty feet to the west. From this point
the small stream rushing through the glen
and under the bridge may be seen some 25O
feet below Correspondence Ne,c York Star.
IT WASN'T THE BOY.-The ripe grapes
lay temptingly outside fruit store on
Broadway and the little ragged boy looked
at them longingly, wishing to taste them,
and wondering what they would taste like.
Rut he didn't steal any. 1t was a we'll