Mr. Sterns-Fadelle of Dominica has just published a little book giving
some interesting information recently obtained about a curious natural
phenomenon in Dominica, one of the Lesser Antilles.
This island is only 291 square miles in area. It was colonized by
the Spaniards in the seventeenth century and peopled later by French
emigrants, who controlled the island uninterruptedly until the
eighteenth century, and its resources have since been exploited by
English and French; and yet its natural curiosity in the northern part
of the island had never been seen or heard of until twenty-eight years
ago.
This can be explained only by the fact that the neighborhood of
the boiling Lake of Dominica is difficult of access. The lake was
discovered by an Englishman, Dr. Nichols, who organized an expedition
to explore the unknown part of the island.
One day his little party were clambering up a mountain. They suddenly
came upon evidences of sulphur, and a moment later stood looking down
into a crater which was filled with boiling water.
Stifling vapors rose from the agitated surface, rumblings of thunder
came from the subterranean regions, and near the center of the little
lake, where the water was most violently disturbed, the furious boiling
lifted the surface ten or twelve feet above the general level. The lake
was constantly fed by several small brooks that poured from the heights
above the crater.
Mr. Sterns-Fadelle says that the lake is still boiling. It has been
found to be at an altitude of 2,490 meters above sea level. In form it
is elliptical.
When it is filled with water it is about 200 feet long and less than
100 feet wide. Its depth is unknown. An attempt to touch bottom was
made thirty feet from the water edge, where, at a depth of 195 feet, no
bottom was reported.
The water is not always in movement. At certain times the surface is
calm and glistens brilliantly under the rays of the sun.
At other times it is violently agitated and boils away, exactly like
a big tea kettle. But, instead of the singing that accompanies the
ebullitions in the kettle, the boiling fluid in this cauldron is
accompanied by the gruffest and most unpleasant detonations. Little
waves roll up on the narrow shelf of sandy beach, which is covered with
a scum of sulphur.
The boiling lake is the center of the present volcanic activity of
Grande Souffrière, or Diabolin, a mountain covering an area of about
five square miles. The lake is one of the last vestiges of volcanic
energy left to the big mountain, which within the historical period has
had no great outbursts.