Page:1898 NB Magazine.djvu/326

unruffled by wind or storm, its temperature unaffected by any rise or fall of thermometer—ice cold, whether the mercury climbs up among the nineties or nestles in the globe at the bottom of the glass—a body of water forty-five feet wide by one hundred feet long and fifteen feet deep, and covered by a vaulted and colored roof, the white and gray, and tints bordering on blue, of the plaster, alternating or mingling with the red and brown of the clay—the whole held together and supported by nature's unswerving law of cohesion. Front crevices here and there in the roof, the large drops of water amidst the otherwise dead silence, constantly splashing into the body of the lake, and the eternal rocks piled on rocks around and above the semi-darkness and shadows, give the visitor an awesome sort of feeling, and added to the chill and dampness of the air usually make him satisfied with what he has seen after a very few minutes stay.

The descent although steep is not dangerous or even difficult. The first half of the distance is made by the aid of a rope to which one clings and easily con ducts himself down to a landing where a pair of steps lead to the margin of the water. But it is suggested to those who have the place in charge that at a very small expense, proper steps could be built from the surface of the hill directly to the margin of the water which would not only facilitate the descent and return, but would avoid damage to the visitor's clothes, some times unavoidable, owing to the dampness and the softness of the clay over which under present arrangements one is obliged to pass.

The water, clear as crystal, yet showing a blue tinge from the reflection of the plaster forming the roof of the cave in which the lake lies, remains always at about forty-two degrees of cold. Although careful search has been made, the source from which the lake