The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1890-07-23

The water, warm like that OF the basin
at Las Delicias Walters fancy turned
towards Amy sitting there-fowed down
from the principal receptacle over sue
cession Of terraces, each containing a
Subsidiary basin. The whole was made
of travertine, white as the purest marble,
formed from the calcareous deposit of
it's own waters.
Don Walter explored this spot thor
oughly; it might well be the home of
some stately god, and ought by all the
probabilities to be the locality of "the
Yellow Snake" In q random way he
rolled some heavy stones into the basin.
These, perhaps choking the mouth of
some subterranean vent, produced, as
happens in geysers, a formidable ebulli-
ton, quite out of proportion to the cause
But nothing whatever appeared that
could be construed as supernatural.
Going on, somewhat after midday, he
came to curious heap or cairn of bowl
ders, thrown together as by Titanic
hands, around which surged white
flood of furiously heated water The
mozo, smitten by a nameless panic,
would not approach, and his master,
leaving him, went on alone
The cairn could not be reached at all
from most directions Oh account of the
heat of the boiling water, but, searching
round it, he found an accessible point ON
one side, where ran another brook, this
one strange to say, of geld GOODNESS.
He clambered up to a sort Of platform
whence he could overlook all that was
below.
The shadow sides of the rocks were of
almost velvety blackness, but they were
touched with spots Of vivid light, where
sunshine reflected from the opposite wall
of the canyon fell upon them. The mad
hot torrent disappeared under large
fat rock, slippery with the constant
spray, as if it had plunged downward
into unfathomable depths.
Walter, tired with his work, threw
himself down to rest. He fell to musing
upon his labors in the Barranca and what
he had expected to find there. He had
broken off specimens of all the rocks,
and he had tested al the powders and
solid deposits incrusted round the Dor
3 ders of the springs, and had met with no
success.
His musings were broken in upon after
a while-he hardly knew in his abstrac
ton how long Il time had passed-by
sense as of something moving under his
eye; it was such Il sense as one is con
scious of when an unseen bird or animal
stirs in the bushes near by. He aroused
himself and looked downward to the
slippery flat rock Immediately below him.
There was motion: there was life. What
strange object held his fascinating
gaze, and set his heart wildly beating!
A yellow rcptilian head had peap2d
forth. 1t WAS round, smooth, and seemed
to have neither eyes nor mouth The
head was gently followed by Il body.
Slowly, deliberately it came forth. Sin
uous and rather slender at first, it grad
ually gathered bulk, till it grew squat
and broad. When the whole shape had
emerged it was some three feet in
length.
It was yellow serpent, without spot
or speck of amy other color upon it.
''Have l lost my senses?' cried Walter
docs some misshapen old Aztec divini
ty then really exist in this lonely spot,
and has he chosen to show himself to
ma the greatest of skeDtics?'
TO BE CONTINUED.
Electric BitLerS.