The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-07

| ana plantalnS and afJef Illle or s' entered the forest. For several miles
 the woods were very dark and damI with no underbrush, the giant gum silk-cotton and mahogany trees rising often for a hundred feet without 3
 limb, their bases sending out huge but
 tresses in all directions and theil
 branches hung with trailing vines and
 lianas, some delicate as threads, others
 huge, gnarled and twisted, thick as a
 mans thigh, but big and little, all
 coverd with air-plants and sweet scent
 ed orchids, around which lowered beau-
 tiful humming birds, From the deep
 shadows an occasional Agouti would
 scuttle away at our approach CT beside
 some roaring mountain brook we would
 stop entranced and listen with bated
 breath to the loud, clear, soul-stlrring
 whistle of the Siffleur Montague, note
 which for melancholy sweetness is not
 equalleG. It seems to send thrill or
 pleasure yet of sadness through your
 very soul, as from the depths of the
 silent tropic forest issues the long
 drawn flute-like whistle, rising and
 falling, in a sweetness that seems not
 to belong to earth, Gradually the trees
 grew smaller, while the palms and
 tree-ferns were scattered among them.
 Then the tree-ferns increased and soon
 we were walking through the most
 remarkable and beautiful forest l have
 ever seen. The tree-ferns were not the
 puny things seen in hot houses, but
 veritable giants, their hairy trunks
 often forty feet in height and crowned
 with fronds twenty feet or more in
 length. For an hour or so we walked
 through this unique forest and then
 emerging entered a jungle of tall grass and small shrubs while all around us stood charred and blackened skeletons
 of trees. We could now hear the rumbling of the volcano and could see the steam and vapor rising in clouds from the top of the crater few hundred yards above us.
 A few moments more of stiff climb ing and we stood on the edge of the crater and gazed upon a scene which might we'll have furnished the inspira- tien of Dantes Inferno. A huge circu- lar pit 400 feet deep. it's scanned and scared edges burnt bright red,while around it's edges stood the gaunt skele- tons of.the trees. Streams of inky black water trickled down it's sides, sending up jets of sealding foul-smelling steam, while from under foot came a dull, roar. After viewing it a few from the brink we descended into the crater, The sides were steep and slippery, and in many places hot enough to burn my shoes, so that de- scent was by no means easy The only was scattered plants of the beautiful gold and silver ferns which grew here and there in the creylces of the rocks When we reached the bot tom we could plainly feel the constant lar of the hidden forces,and in many places upon poking a stick into the ground a. jet of steam and inky water would spout tip several feet. On the bottom and sides were numbers of 1 mall geysers, none of them spouting | nore than ten or fifteen feet, but con- ;tantly shifting from one place to | mother so that we felt rather uneasy; | or although a fifteen foot geyser is lot very remarkable yet it would be decidedly uncomfortable, to say the east, for 1t to come suddenly up under mes feet Rtnnlng through the center f the crater was good sized stream of boiling water, and following his down through a small gap in the astern wall we came to the lake. When we first saw it it resembled any ther pond except that the shores were omposed of sulphur and a mist was ising from it. Suddenly the center be- an to agitate and then to rise as hough lifted from below, the water F vould rise ten or twelve feet, fall back,
 se again, and then begin to bubble Id boil, the boiling gradually extending ntil the whole lake was mass of eething, roaring water While stand lg on the shore Andre suggested that e should boil an egg in the water, nd while engaged in this operation he ltertained me with an inte esting story one of his friends who, while at the Ike, endeavored to boil some eggs anl sing slightly under the influence of ltive rum, lost his balance and pitched 5 rward into the water and was e loroughly cooked before his compan- c ns could pull him out. Old Andre . emed to take great pleasure in the re- tation of this thrilling tale and grin sd from ear to ear as he pointed out
 e exact spot and graphically describ- how the poor fellows flesh fell from 4 s bones. The lake apparently has no 4 ltlet but by following down the moun-
 in we discovered where it issued from D e ground, and much to our surprise F und it to be barely luke warm. Evi- ,ntly it is fed by cold stream in it's lderground passage. The lake seems N
 be simply group of intermittent II ysers situated in small depression
 that during their subsistence pool c
 water remains. The sensation of Q anding in this place is very strange; a . ere is a feeling of constant danger, d wish to be on solid ground, while
 the same time there is a strange fas- ~ nation about it which is almost inn ssible to resist. It was several hours fore I could make up my mind to i've and retrace my steps across the bter. Upon a close examination the lter is found to be composed mainly r fine ashes packed and baked almost X
 hard as brick, and strewn with ,cks of lava and a kind of very hard, pophery closely resembling that of - eretare Mex. in which opals occur, t although we broke open a large IT mber of pieces we found no trace of j. , opal. There is also considerable
 ount of dull gray and exceedingly ! irrrr s.. ;.l, ,,ot,a