Page:1898 NB Magazine.djvu/324
green meadows; and everywhere evidences of thrift and progress.
And should the desire of the tourist include the wonderful, his wishes along that line need not go ungratified. In many places in the province are spots where nature has displayed an originality and a prodigality of the marvellous rarely excelled amidst the best advertised natural wonders on the earth's surface. One of these marvellous natural creations, which has only lately been discovered and which is still almost unknown, is what is called the Underground Lake, in Albert county.
Some years ago, parties lumbering in the vicinity of Cape Demoiselle Creek, about seven miles from Hillsboro, while working on one of the high hills or cliffs in that neighborhood, at an elevation of about two hundred feet above high water mark of the Petitcodiac river and about sixty feet above the level of the meadow out of which the hill or mountain rises, discovered an opening, circular in form and about thirty feet in diameter. Entering this opening and descending some fifty feet at an angle of about sixty degrees they came to the margin of what proved to be a lake forty-five feet wide, one hundred feet long and fifteen feet deep. The ascent to the mouth of the entrance to the lake being steep and difficult, it remained almost unknown for a long time, but some years ago, workmen in the employ of the Hillsboro Plaster Company, for the purpose of facilitating their search for plaster and conveying the same to a place of shipment, made a fairly passable road up the side of the mountain directly to the mouth of the cave in which the lake lies. Since this road has been opened the place has been visited by large numbers of persons who have found much to interest, and instruct as well, in and about the lake and other points of interest in the vicinity.
The visitor to the lake, leaving Hillsboro, a neat