San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-06-17

openly at Work. L ne BTOuIu SIuOheu
from hundred fumaroles and other
vents, and around them the fragments
of roCks-granite, sandstOnes, limestones
and slate, brought up by the resistless
force that mad torn through them from
the lowest depths-were crumbling in
whitish flakes under the attack of power
full escaping gases. A great sunken bowl
which Walter proceeded to call at once
La Caldera-burned luridly with molten
lava IN violent ebullition, and strange
lights appeared in some crevices of the
side walls, as if the cliffs themselves
were on fire within. The tall cliffs van
ished i'll long winding perspectives, in
spring awe, and here and there stood
out from them vast, buttress like projec-
tons Across the blue sky arching
above often passed such billowy masses
Of vapor as if the canyon were the man.
ufactory of the very clouds also.
1t was nightfall when they reached
this place. and they encamped on the
spot where they found themselves. under
an improvised shelter. Next morning
they began their explorations. Pablo
fat little man of no great character or
stability-finding himself fairly inside
the gorge and safe enough thus far,
seemed less disturbed in mind than be-
fore. They ranged first down towards
the lower end of it, where a difficult ac-
cess could be had through a detile to
large volcanic lake without. They passed
night there, then turned back to the
other end. the head, where the monster
crags drew together and joined at an
Obtuse angle.
They passed over mounds of smooth
volcanic sand, heaps of scOriB and ashes
and floods of solicited lava Strange,
hut like projections with openings were
met with on the lava, which had once
been simply air bubbles in the tide.
But there were not wanting some gay
and pleasing effects also. Nothing more
Joyous could be imagined than a man.
moth warm spring, in a circular bowl,
they fell in with on the morning of the
| second day
"Look. look. tAn water is smoking in a
| basin Of snow" cried Pablo, so surprised
! that for the moment he forgot his mis-
| givings.
The water, warm like that of the basin
| at Las DeliciaS-W Walters fancy turned
towards Amy sitting there-hOwed 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
| its own waters. =
| Don Walter explored this spot thor
oughly; it might we'll be the home OF
some stately god and ought by all the
probabilities to be the locality of ''the
Yellow Snai:e" In 8 random way he
rolled some heavy stones into the basin.
| These, perhaps choking the mouth of
some sUbteTr"Haan Vent, produced, as
happens in geyserS, 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 a curious heap or cairn of bowl
ders, thrown together as by Titanic
hanls, around which surged a white
food Of furiously heated water. The
mozo, smitt~n by nameless panic,
would not approach, and his master,
| leaving him, went on alone.
The CAIN could not be reached at all
| from most directions on 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 sort of platform
| whence he could overlook all that was
| below.
The shadow SIDES Of the rocks were of
almost veivety blackness, but they were
touched with sI)t5 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 const,.lt
spray, as if it had plunged downward
into unfatholnable depths.
| Walter, tired with his work, threw
himself down 10 rest. He fell to musing
| upon his labOrs il the Barrancu and what
he had expected to find there. He had
broken off specimens of all the rocks,
and he had tested all the powders and
solid deposits incrusted round the Dor
ders Of the springs, and had met with no
| success.
His musings were broken in upon after
while-he hardly knew in his abstrac-
ton how long time had paSsed-by
sense as Of something moving under his
eye; it was such sense as one is con-
scious of when an unseen bird or animal
stirs in the bushes near by. He aroused