 The Modest Liking for Liverpool by W. D. Howells Travel collection number one. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Modest Liking for Liverpool. Why should the proud stomach of an American travel much tossed in the transatlantic voyage? So instantly have itself carried from Liverpool to any point where trains will convey it. Liverpool is most worthy to be seen and known. And no one who looks up from the bacon and eggs of his first hotel breakfast after landing and finds himself confronted by the cold-smoked Greek architecture of St. George's Hall can deny that it is a singularly noble presence. The city has moments of failing in the promise of this classic edifice, but every now and then it reverts to it and reminds the traveler that he is in a great modern metropolis of commerce by many other noble edifices. One. Liverpool does not remind him of this so much as the good and true by-decker professors. In the dockside run on the overhead railway, as the place unambitiously calls its elevated road. But then as I noted in my account of Southampton, docks have a fancy of taking themselves in or alluding the tourist eye and even when they flank the mercy for a distance of six to seven miles. They do not respond to American curiosity so frankly as could be wished. They are like other English things in that, however, and it must be said for them that when apparent they are sometimes unimpressive. From my own notebook, indeed, I find that I pretended to think them wonderful and almost endless. And so I dare say they are, but they formed only a very perfunctory interest of our day at Liverpool where we had come to meet not to take a steamer. Our run from London, in the heart of June, was very quick and pleasant. Through a neat country and many tidy towns, in the meadows the elms seemed to droop like our own rather than to hold themselves oakenly upright like the English. The cattle stood about in the yellow buttercups, knee deep, white American daisies and red clover, and among the sheep we had our choice of shorn and unshorn. They were equally abundant. Some of the blossomy may was left yet on the Hawthorns and overall the sky hovered with pale white clouds and pale blue spaces of air like an averted lake of bonnet clover. We stopped the night at Chester and the next evening in the full daylight of 7.40 we pushed on to Liverpool over lovely levels with a ground swell like that of Kansas plains under a sunset drawing its tears and at last, ratingly smiling. Two, the hotel in Liverpool swarmed and buzzed with busy and murmurous American arrivals. One could hardly get at the office window on account of them to plead for a room. A dense group of our country women were buying picture postals of the rather suave office ladies and helplessly fawning on them in the inept confidences of American women with all persons in official or servile attendance. Let me stay here one of them and treat it because there's such a draught at the other window. May I? She was a gentle child of 45 or 50 and I do not know whether she was allowed to stay in the sheltered nook or not. Tender creature. As she was in everyone else's way there, possibly she was harshly driven into the flaw at the other window. The place was a little America which swelled into a larger with the arrivals of the successive steamers though the soft swift English trains bore our co-nationals away as rapidly as they could. Many familiar accents remained till the morning and the breakfast room was full of a nasal resonance which would have made one at home anywhere in our east or west. I who was then vainly trying to be English escaped to the congenial top of the farthest bound tram and flew at the rate of four miles an hour to the uttermost suburbs of Liverpool where there no rumor of my native speech could penetrate. There was some balm to my wounded pride of country to note how pale and small the average type of the local people was. The poor classes swarmed along a great part of the tram line in side streets of a hard stony look and what characterized itself to me as a sort of iron squalor seemed to prevail. You cannot anywhere have great prosperity without great adversity just as you cannot have day without night and the more Liverpool evidently flourished the more it plainly languished. I found no pleasure in the paradox and I was not overjoyed by the inevitable ugliness of the brick villas of the suburbs into which these obdurate streets decayed. But then over diver's tram changes came the consolation of beautiful riverside beaches thronged with people who looked gay at that distance and beyond the mercy rose the well shills blue blue three. At the end of the tram line where we necessarily dismounted we rejected a thatched cottage offering us tea because we thought it looked too thatched and too cottage to be quite true. Though I do not now say that there were vermin in the straw roof and accepted the hospitality of a pastry cooked shop. We felt the more at home with the con woman who kept it because she had a brother at Chicago and the employee of the Pinkerton detective agency and had once been in Stratford on Avon. This doubly satisfied us as cultivated Americans. She had a Welsh name and she testified to a great prevalence of Welsh and Irish in the population of Liverpool. Besides she sent us to a church of the crusaders at Little Crosby and it was no fault of hers that we did not find it. We found one of the many old crosses for which Little Crosby is named and this was quite as much as we merited. It stood at the intersection of the streets in what seemed the fragment of a village not quite lost in the vast maw of the city and it calmed all the simple neighborhood so that we sat down at its foot and rested a long long minute till the tram came back and took us back into the loud hard heart of Liverpool. I do not mean to blame it for it was no louder or harder than the hearts of other big towns and it had some alleviation from the many young couples who are out together half holidaying in the unusually pleasant Saturday weather. I wish their complexions had been better but you cannot have south of England color if you live as far north as Liverpool and all the world knows what the American color is. The young couples abounded in the gallery of fine arts where they frankly looked at one another instead of the pictures. The pictures might have been better but then they might have been worse. There being examples of Philippi, Lipe, Memmi, Holborn and above all the Dante's dream of Rossetti and in any case those couples could come and see them when they were old men and women but now they had one another in a moment of half holiday which could not last forever. In the evening there were not so many lovers at the religious meetings before the classic edifice opposite the hotel where the devotions were transacted with the help of the brass band but there were many youths smoking short pipes and flitting from one preacher to another in the half dozen groups. Some preachers were nonconformist but there was one perspiring Anglican priest who labored earnestly with his hearers and who had more of his aspirants in the right place. Many of his hearers were in the rags which seemed to favor it were in Liverpool and I hope his words did their poor hearts good. Slightly apart from the several congregations I found myself with a fellow foreigner of seafaring complexion who addressed me in an accent so unlike my own American that I ventured to answer him in Italian. He was indeed a Genoese who had spent much time in Buenos Aires and was presently thinking of New York and we had some friendly discourse together concerning the English. His ideas of them were often so parallel with mine that I hardly know how to say he thought them an improvident people. I own that they spent much more on state or station than the Americans but we neither had any censor for them otherwise. He was of the philosophic mind which one is rather apt to encounter in the Latin races and I could well wish for his further acquaintance. His talk wrapped me to far other and earlier scenes and I seemed to be conversing with him under a Venetian heaven among objects of art more convincing than the equestrian statue of the late Queen who had no special motive I could think of for being shown to her rightly loving subjects on horseback. We parted with the expressed hope of seeing each other again and if this should meet his eye and he can recall the pale young man with the dark full beard who chatted with him between the pillars of the piezeta. Forty years before our actual encounter I would be glad of his address. Four. A stranger the uses of travel. There was a time when the mention of Liverpool would have conjured up for me nothing but the thought of Hawthorne who spent divers dill counselor years there and has left a record of them which I had read with the wish that it were cheerfuler. Yet now here on the grounds his feet might have trod and in the very smoky breath I did not once think of him. I thought as little of that poor Felicia Heymans whose poetry filled my school reading years with the roar of the wintry sea breaking from the waveless Plymouth Bay on the stern and rock bound coast where the Pilgrim Fathers landed on a boulder measuring eight by ten feet now fenced in against the predatory hammers and chisels of reverent visitors. I knew that Gladstone was born at Liverpool but not Mrs. Oliphant and the only literary shade I could summon from a past vague enough to my ignorance was William Roscoe whose life of Leo the Tenth in the Bone Library had been too much for my young zeal when my zeal was still young. My other memories of Liverpool have been acquired since my visit and I now recur fondly to the picturesque times when King John founded a castle there to the prouder times when Sir Francis Bacon presented it in Parliament or again to the brave days when it resisted Prince Rupert for three weeks and the inglorious epic when the new city was then only some four or five hundred years old began to flourish on the trade in slaves with the colonies of the Spanish Maine and on the conjoined and congenial traffic in rum sugar and tobacco will be suspected from these reminiscences that I have been stunning a page of fine print in Bydecker and I will not deceive the reader it is true but it is also true that I had some wonder all together of my own that so great a city should make so small an appeal to the imagination and this it out does almost any metropolis of our own even in journalism an intensely modern product it does not excel Manchester has its able and well-written guardian but what has Liverpool Glasgow has its Glasgow school of painting but again what has Liverpool it is said that not above a million of its people live in it all the rest who can escape to Chester where they perhaps vainly hope to escape the Americans there entrenched in charming villas behind myrtle hedges they measurably do so but Americans are very penetrating and I would not be sure that the thickest and highest hedge was invulnerable to them as it is they probably constitute the best society of Liverpool which the natives have abandoned to them though they do not constituted permanently but consecutively every coon ardor every white star pours out upon a city abandoned by its own good society a flood of cultivated Americans who eddy into its hotels and then rush out of them by every train within 24 hours and often within 25 minutes they understand that there are no objects of interest in Liverpool and they are not met at the customs with invitations to breakfast luncheon and dinner from the people of rank and fashion with whom they have come to associate these have their stately seats in the lovely neighboring country but they are not at the landing stage and even the uncultivated American cannot stay for the vast bourgeoisie of which Liverpool like the cities of his land is composed our own cities have a social consciousness and are each sensible of being a center with a metropolitan destiny but the strange thing about Liverpool and the like English towns is that they are without any social consciousness their millions are socially unborn they can come into the world only in London and in their prenatal obscurity they remain folded in a dreamless silence while all the commercial and industrial energies rage around them in a gigantic maturity five the time was when Liverpool was practically the sole point of entry for our human cargos indentured apprentices of the beautiful the historical with the almost immediate transference of the original transatlantic steamship interest from Bristol Liverpool became the only place where you could arrive American lines long erased from the seas in the Inman line the Cunard line the White Star line and the rest would land you nowhere else then heretical steamers began to land you at Glasgow worse gizmatics carried you to South Hampton there were heterodox craft that touched it Plymouth and now great swelling agnostics bring you to London itself still Liverpool remains the greatest port of entry for our probationers who are bound out to the hotels and railroad companies of all Europe till they have morally paid back their fare the superstition that if you go in a Cunarder you can sleep on both ears is no longer so exclusive as it once was yet the Cunarder continues an arc of safety for the timid and despairing and the cooking is so much better than it used to be that if in contravention of the old Cunard rule against the passengers being carried overboard you do go down you may be reasonably sure of having eaten something that the wallowing sea monsters will liken you I've tried to give some notion of the fond behavior of the arriving Americans in the hotels no art can give the impression of their exceeding multitude expresses panting with as much impatient as the disciplined English expresses ever suffer themselves to show await them in the stations which are effectively parts of the great hotels and we're away to London with them as soon as they can drive up from the steamer but many remain to rest to get the sea out of their heads and legs and to prepare their spirits for adjustment to the novel conditions these the successive trains carry into the heart of the land everywhere these in their baggage to which they continue attached by their very heartstrings invisibly stretching from their first-class corridor compartments to the different luggage fans I must say they have very tenderly very perfectly imagined us all those hotel people and railroad folk enfold us anxious and bewildered exiles in a reassuring and consoling embrace which leaves all their hands they are briarion free for the acceptance of our wide wild tips you may trust yourself implicitly to their care but if you're going to Oxford do not trust the head porter who tells you to take the London and north-western for then you'll have to change four times on the way and at every junction personally see that your baggage is unladen and started anew to its destination end of a modest liking for Liverpool Naples and Mount Vesuvius by Frank G. Carpenter travel collection one this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Betty B. Naples and Mount Vesuvius the Italians have a saying see Naples and die for they say you will then have seen the most beautiful city of the world and indeed it is beautiful the sky is almost always bright and it is nowhere brighter than at Naples the Mediterranean is almost always blue and at the Bay of Naples its color is glorious the city as it rises about the bay tier above tier seems a city of palaces there are hazy blue mountains behind it and south of it is the great brown volcano of Vesuvius with its steaming cone standing out against the blue sky but let us see how it looks in the city itself we leave our hotel and climb up through the streets many of them are steep and we are always going up or down hill the high buildings are close to the sidewalks and the streets are so narrow that in places the walls shut out the sun they are not over clean and in some streets the smells are offensive the people live in flats or apartments and in the poorer quarters of the city whole families dwell in one room what curious things the people do on the streets we see men and women sitting down on the pavements making their toilets there is a woman combing her hair and here is one washing her baby there is a cobbler at his bench sulling a pair of old shoes and beside him a tailor is working away what a lot of children there are everywhere there are two babies sprawling on the edge of the gutter here comes a boy of eight driving a donkey and there is another with a can in his hand pulling along two milk goats from door to door he is one of the little milk men of the city and is probably helping his father whom we see with those goats farther on there are donkeys carrying all sorts of things here comes one loaded with fruit and behind are two others written by boys the donkeys are not bigger than newfoundland dogs and their ears are almost as long as their legs many of the neapolitan boys have their own donkeys as our boys sometimes have ponies do you like roasted chestnuts there are men selling them here on almost every block they have little furnaces and basins of charcoal on which they roast chestnuts out in the streets we pass fruit stands every now and then and buy delicious pairs for 10 cents a dozen and oranges too for a cent see the crowd of men and women about that cook stand they are buying roast sausages and stewed macaroni italy is famous for its macaroni and quantities of it are exported to our country every year see there is a man eating some now he twists his fork around and around in the dish and takes a great mass of it at one go he does not cut it but sucks in the long strings until the whole has gone down his throat suppose we visit one of the factories and learn how macaroni is made such factories are to be seen in all parts of italy for macaroni forms a large part of the food of the people it is made in different sizes and shapes sometimes in long strings sometimes in pipes as big around as your finger and sometimes in sticks about as thick as a knitting needle the finer kinds are called vermicelli and spaghetti we see the tubes of white dough drying on the racks in front of the factory and when we go in find a score of men and boys hard at work each boy is so covered with flour that his dark rosy face looks almost ghastly in contrast with his sparkling black eyes he is in his bare feet and his sleeves are rolled up to his shoulders the men are mixing the flour into dough and kneading it with great bars so fast into hinges that they can press the dough down on the table after it is thoroughly kneaded they carry it to a cylinder in which there are many small holes so arranged that it can be pressed through them it comes out in long pipes or sticks which the boys carry to the racks in the sun or to the hot drying rooms which some factories have for the purpose let us stroll on down to the bay it is filled with shipping for naples is the chief port of the italian peninsula and his harbor is one of the finest of europe the city is as big as st lewis and has a vast trade with all parts of the Mediterranean with northern europe and with north and south america it also does a great business in fish and in coral and sponges it has many fishing vessels and its people go fishing not only in the Mediterranean but out to the Atlantic and elsewhere but the most interesting thing about naples is not in the city itself it is the great volcano outside only a short drive away the suvious is the only active volcano on the continent of europe and it is one of the most interesting volcanoes of the whole world it is early morning when we start out to explore it the first part of our journey is in a carriage driven by a neapolitan coachman who cracks his whip every minute and keeps his team on the gallop we rattle out of the city over pavements of lava now almost running over a baby and now making the dogs howl as with drooping tails they leap out of our way we go through small villages of lava built houses by vineyards and gardens walled with lava and then up through foothills of volcanic sand until we enter a region which is all bare brown lava there is lava everywhere and in all sorts of shapes we pass through seas and rivers of lava which once flowed like fire but which now are cold and dead and as we look up see a column of steam hanging like a gigantic umbrella over a brown lava mountain the volcano of the suvious the mountain is perfectly bare there is not a bit of grass to be seen anywhere it is all lava ashes and volcanic sand the road going up winds in and out until it at last becomes so steep that we must leave the carriages and mount donkeys when about 2 000 feet above the sea we reach the observatory where instruments are kept to register the movements of the mighty volcano how the earth rumbles it was shaking as we rode up on our donkeys and here by the instruments we can see just what motion is going on a way down in the heart of the mountain the director of the observatory informs us that vasuvius is always more or less active but that there is no present danger he describes the first recorded eruption telling us how a little more than 1800 years ago the volcano was covered with farms the slopes being cultivated almost to the top then there were vineyards all over the land where the lava and ashes now are and hot springs on the edge of the mountains where the rich Romans came for their health and for sport there were beautiful towns on the plains nearby and among others the two fashionable resorts of Pompeii and Herculaneum Pompeii contained about 25 000 people it was a rich residence city and its inhabitants had beautiful homes temples and theaters the rich were living in fine style giving parties and dinners and driving about in their chariots with gay prancing horses the poor were at work at their trades the merchants were selling goods in the stores the children were going to school and all sorts of business were being carried on when one day without warning the great mountain burst forth sending vast volumes of steam ashes burning rocks and mud high into the air there were so many ashes that they darkened the sun and turned the day into night even in Rome hundreds of miles to the northward the sun was hidden the people thought that the end of the world had come and that an age when it would be always night had set in at the same time it rained mud and rivers of boiling hot mud flowed out of the crater down over the plain the horses sheep and cattle which were pasturing there were drowned the fields the vineyards and gardens were covered and in the towns even the tallest buildings were soon buried they all disappeared and the region became a great plain of ashes and mud as time went on new towns grew up on the plains and crops of all kinds were raised there the buried cities were blotted out of the memory of man as the volcano had blotted them from the face of the earth so it remained until a little more than 150 years ago when a peasant who was digging a well struck his spade against a statue he dug it out and soon it was found that there was a city down there buried under the earth the government of Italy took possession of the place and for years it has had men at work unearthing the city the scholars began to investigate the history of the region and it was found that the site of the lost city of Pompeii had been discovered the great eruption occurred in the latter part of the first century of our era and for a long time thereafter the volcano lay quiet during the 18th century there was another terrible eruption and in 1822 the whole top of the mountain burst off and formed a great chasm three miles in circumference and about half a mile deep since then other eruptions have caused streams of lava to flow out of the crater until now Vesuvius seems to be only a vast mass of lava rock sand and ashes leaving the observatory we again mount our donkeys and make our way up the mountain at last we reach the station from where we are to ride up to the crater by rail the railroad is a little like the one up Pike's Peak but more like one of our cable car lines the track has three rails one in the center which supports the weight of the car and others at each side for the guiding wheels which keep the car from jumping the track the cable attached to the car runs around a wheel at the top of the mountain and is moved by an engine at the station below the sides of the car are open and we get a magnificent view of the Mediterranean as we rise through the volcanic sand up the steep mountain we go rapidly upward and at last we stop near the crater over 4 000 feet above the sea here we hire other guides and pick our way over the thin coating of lava to the mouth of the volcano the air is hot and full of sulfur fumes we cough and hold our handkerchiefs to our faces in a vain effort to keep out the fumes the wind is blowing the steam away from the crater and we walk carefully over the crust and look down into a vast pit walled with yellow sulfur in the bottom of which a lake of fire is seething sending up steam ashes brimstone and rocks now it seems to be quiet and now it bursts forth throwing stones high up into the air they fall back and we can hear them splash away down in the crater but now the wind changes it is rising into a gale and the stones are falling almost at our feet our guides drag us back and hurry us away for fear we may all be killed by the burning hot stones this is only a gentle eruption when the great outbursts occur the noise is like that of a battle and rocks weighing many tons are shot upwards for hundreds of feet about 50 years ago 20 sightseers were killed where we now stand by a sudden eruption of lava pieces of rock being thrown a mile high at such times the steam rises to a height of more than two miles and the whole mountain is covered by an umbrella of ashes and vapor more than five miles in height how warm the earth is we dare not stand still we seem to be walking upon a hot stove we smell our shoes burning we bend down and touch the lava with our fingers but draw them away quickly smarting with the heat one of the guides asks us to look at the cracks in the earth and we see golden streams of molten lava flowing through them under our feet he thrusts an iron rod into one of the cracks and brings out a lump of the red hot metal he asks us for a penny and he presses it into the mass with a stick he then drops the lava off the rod into a bucket of water which a boy has brought up the water hisses and steams but the lava soon cools and the guide takes it out our penny is now embedded in the lava like a raisin in a bun and we take it home as a relic but see the boy is pulling some eggs out of his pocket he points to the water and offers to cook them for us he rests the bucket over a wide crack where the molten lava is not far from the surface the intense heat soon boils the water and the eggs are cooked hard we carry them back with us down the mountain and eat them with our lunch at the railroad station below priding ourselves that we are among the few Americans who have eaten eggs cooked on volcanoes we then ride back to the carriages and drive over the plane to the site of the once buried city of Pompeii there is a great wall about it made of the ashes and stones which have been already dug out and we find many boys and men digging and carrying the stuff out in baskets on their backs and their heads a large part of Pompeii is already uncovered and we walk through streets walled with the curious buildings which were blotted out by Vesuvius 1800 years ago the earthen ashes have so preserved the buildings that they look today almost as they did at the time of the eruption the roadways are paved with stone and in some of them we can see the ruts made by the wheels of the chariots we walk through the amphitheater where the people had their shows and sit down on the marble seats of the bathhouses where the boys of Pompeii set when they had finished their baths centuries ago we wander about through the houses peopling them with their own Roman owners many buildings are a brick in many of stone they're nearly all of one or two stories and some are very large they had wooden roofs which were burned off by the ashes many of the houses have walls covered with paintings and in some beautiful statues in bronze and marble were found some had fine paintings and all sorts of beautiful things in metals and carvings the floors of many were formed of different colored stones fitted together in mosaic pictures and the latin word salve or welcome was carved over their doors while in one entrance floor there was a mosaic picture of a fierce dog gnashing his teeth and tugging at a rope as though he wished to get at you while at his feet were the words caue connem or beware of the dog we are interested in the business parts of Pompeii where there are streets of shops with marble counters where the merchants were selling their goods when the mighty volcanic flood came we peep into a public bake oven in which black loaves of burnt bread were found when the mud and ashes were first dug away we see casts of men women and children and even of dogs made by pouring plaster of Paris into the holes which their bodies formed in the ashes and when we again visit the museum of Naples we are shown cooking utensils toilet articles rings earrings and bracelets fish hooks and knives and thousands of other articles of every description all in common use among these people when without warning they were destroyed by the ashes and boiling mud of the terrible mountain end of Naples and Mount Vesuvius beware what's illustrated handbook to new york travel collection number one this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org beware on approaching and coming into the city of the good-natured civilities of persons you have never seen before gratuitous offers of assistance or advice or good fellowship are suspicious to say the least do not be persuaded to go anywhere with these casual acquaintances you are an utter stranger you will find the handbook your best and most trustworthy friend will not mislead you while it is not necessary to particularize every place in the metropolis that is respectable as a stopping place or as a resort for amusement it leaves unmentioned such as are in the least doubtful and which ought to be avoided some which are notorious and extremely insidious are briefly specified under this heading while the newspapers give daily accounts of the innumerable ways of entropping strangers in the city beware if you are at a loss in the street of accosting anyone but a policeman him you will know by his uniform blue coat and cap and brass buttons if you do not see a policeman step into the nearest store or hotel and make your inquiries beware of the perluse of the city they are only to be visited under the escort of a police officer beware of mock auctions and stores and of the pleasant-faced man who invites you to look in beware of panel houses the sliding panel is let into the walls of some doubtful houses through which thieves enter unperceived and have you at their mercy beware of saloons with pretty waiter girls they're among the most dangerous decoys in the city beware of all who cost you in the street particularly if they want your advice about a pocketbook they have just found or a roll of money which they have picked up such persons have a very innocent and inexperienced air distrust them don't stop to listen to them beware of visiting a fashionable gambling house just to see what is going on beware of giving street beggars or organ grinders more than a few pennies beware of walking late in the evening except in the busiest thoroughfares of the city beware of exposing your watch pocketbook or jewelry in the streets lecture rooms theaters or on omnibuses or cars you should suspect anyone man or woman well or ill dressed who crowds oppresses against you the contents of your pockets are in danger ladies keep your pocketbooks in the bosom of your dress beware of hack drivers extortions beware of passing under a building in course of erection or repairs it is worthwhile to cross the street twice to avoid it beware especially in the evening of persons who ask you what time it is they have designs on your watch beware of leaving any considerable sum of money or any valuables in your trunk or of carrying them on your person there is a safer in every hotel where you can deposit such things without charge beware of talking about your business before strangers beware of even the orderly dance houses a sadder story of new york life cannot be written than that connected with these places end of beware crater lake one of the world's great natural wonders by wg steel travel collection one this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information auto volunteer please visit librivox.org crater lake one of the world's great natural wonders a trip to crater lake is to a lover of the grand and beautiful in nature an important event around which will ever cluster memories of unalloyed happiness thoughts of little adventures and weird experiences that go to make life worth living it is situated in the northwest portion of clamoth county oregon 22 miles west of north of fort clamoth and about 80 miles northeast of medford which is the best point to leave the oregon and california railroad the jacksonville and fort clamoth military road passes the lake within three miles and the road to the very wards of it is an exceptionally good one for the mountainous country while in near proximity may be found remarkably fine camping grounds the indians of southern oregon have known of it for ages but until recently none have seen it for the reason that a tradition handed down from generation to generation described it as the home of myriads of sea devils or as they were called laos and it was considered certain death for any brave even to look upon it this superstition still haunts the clamoths while a few of the tribe have visited it they do so with a sort of mysterious dread of the consequences it was discovered by a party of 12 prospectors on june 12 1853 among whom were jw hillman george ross james laudan pat mcmanus isak sketers and a mr dod they had left the main party and were not looking for gold but having run short of provisions were seeking wherewithal to stay the gnawing sensations that had seized upon their stomachs for a time hunger foresook them as they stood in silent amazement upon the cliffs and drank it in awe of the scene stretched before them after partaking of the inspiration fostered by such weird grandeur they decided to call it mysterious or deep blue lake it was subsequently called lake majesty and by being constantly referred to as a crater lake it gradually assumed that name which is within itself so descriptive at times when gazing from the surrounding wall the skies and cliffs are seen perfectly mirrored in a smooth and glossy surface over which the mountain breeze creates scarce a ripple and it is with great difficulty the eye can distinguish the line dividing the cliffs from their reflected counterfeits the lake is almost egg-shaped ranging northeast by southwest and is seven miles long by six in width the water's surface is 6251 feet above sea level and is completely surrounded by cliffs or walls from one thousand to over two thousand feet high which are scantily covered with coniferous trees to the southwest is wizard island 845 feet high circular in shape and slightly covered with timber in the top is a depression or crater the witch's cauldron 100 feet deep and 475 feet in diameter this was evidently the last smoking chimney of a once mighty volcano the base of the island is covered with very heavy and hard rocks with sharp and unworn edges over which scarcely a score of human feet have trod farther up are deep beds of ashes and light spongy rocks and cinders giving evidence of intense heat within the crater as without the surface is entirely covered with volcanic rocks but here it forms one of the hottest places on a clear day in august it has ever been my lot to witness not a breath of air seems to enter and the hot sun pours down upon thousands of rocks and stones that reflect his rays with an intensity that seems to multiply beyond conception here however we determine to lunch and did but one such experience will last a long time directly north of the island is lair rock a grand old sentinel standing boldly out on the west side of the lake and reaching up over 2 000 feet perpendicular from the top of it you can drop a stone and it will pass down and grow smaller and smaller until your head begins to swim and you see the stone become a mere speck and fade entirely from view and at last nearly half a mile below it strikes the unruffled surface of the water and sinks forever from sight in the depth of a bottomless lake there is probably no point of interest in america that so completely overcomes the ordinary indian with fear as crater lake from time immemorial no power has been strong enough to induce him to approach within sight of it for a poultry sum he will engage to guide you thither but before you reach the mountaintop he will leave you to proceed alone to the savage mind it is clothed with a deep veil of mystery and is the abode of all manner of demons and unshapely monsters once inhabited by the great spirit it has now become mere sheol of modern times and it is certain death for any proud savage to behold it this feeling has to a certain extent instilled itself in the mind of such whites as have made it their mecca until every stray log that floats upon the water is imagined to possess life and may possibly be a monster exaggerated accounts of different points have been given and implicitly believed without a question of reflection it has been claimed that the crater was 800 feet deep while by actual measurement we found it to be scarcely a hundred the island was said to be 1500 feet high but an accurate measurement places at just 845 feet from alan davie chief of the clamoth tribe i gleaned the following in reference to the discovery of crater lake quote a long time ago long before the white man appeared in this region to vex and drive the proud native out a band of clamoths while out hunting came suddenly upon the lake and was startled by its remarkable walls and awed by its majestic proportions with spirits subdued and trembling with fear they silently approached and gazed upon its face something within told them the great spirit dwelt there and they dared not remain but path silently down the side of the mountain and camped far away by some unaccountable influence however one brave was induced to return he went up to the very brink of the precipice and started his campfire here he lay down to rest here he slept till morn slept till the sun was high in air then arose and joined his tribe far down the mountain at night he came again again he slept till morn each visit bore a charm that drew him back again each night found him sleeping above the rocks each night strange voices arose from the waters mysterious noises filled the air at last after a great many moons he climbed down to the lake and there he bathed and spent the night often he climbed down in like manner and frequently saw wonderful animals similar in all respects to a clam of indian except that they seemed to exist entirely in the water he suddenly became hardier and stronger than any indian of his tribe because of his many visits to the mysterious waters others then began to seek its influence old warriors sent their sons for strength and courage to meet the conflicts awaiting them first they slept on the rocks above then ventured to the water's edge but last of all they plunged beneath the flood and the coveted strength was theirs on one occasion the brave who first visited the lake killed a monster or fish and was at once set upon by untold members of excited laos for such they were called who carried him to the top of the cliffs cut his throat with a stone knife then tore his body in small pieces which were thrown down to the waters far beneath where he was devoured by the angry laos and such shall be the fate of every clamoth brave who from that day to this dares to look upon the lake end quote my first visit to quater lake was in 1885 at which time the thought was suggested by captain c e dutton of having the lake and environs drawn from the market promptly acting on the suggestion my friend the honorable being a herman was sought and a movement started looking for the formation of a national park in response to a petition forwarded to washington and ably advocated by congressman herman the united states geological society under captain dutton was ordered to examine the lake and surroundings during the summer of 1886 in this expedition it was my good fortune to have charge of the sounding which afforded me a pleasure and surpassed in all my mountain experience that an idea may be had of the difficulties to be overcome suffice it to say boats had to be built for the purpose in portland transported to ashland 341 miles by rail and carried from there to the lake on wagons 100 miles into the mountains where they were launched over cliffs 1000 feet high on the first day of july i boarded the train for ashland where i met captain dutton and we were joined immediately afterwards by captain george w davis one of the most eminent engineers of america and ten soldiers on the seventh we started for the lake preceded by captains dutton and davis who were followed by a four mule team bearing a first-class lap streak boat which in turn was followed by three double teams horseman and pack train of our largest boat the cleatwood we all felt justly proud as it was certainly a beautiful model four awed 26 feet long and competent to ride almost any sea when passing through phoenix the typical and irrepressible critic came to the surface in the shape of a lean lank awkward ignorant country boy of say 18 summers with hands in his pockets he aided the single suspender delegated to hold his bridges in place and when shifting a monstrous chew of tobacco over his tongue informed his audience of half a dozen small urchins that that ear boat won't live in crater lake half an hour if the storm comes up it ain't shaped right just see for yourself how sway back it is it must have been made by some fellow has never seen a boat of four this brings to mind the fact that a critic is a person who finds fault with something of which he is densely ignorant the entire distance from ashland 97 miles was accomplished by slow easy marches every precaution being taken to provide against the mishap and no incident occurred of special importance soon after reaching the foothills we encountered sliding places and short turns in the road as the wagon containing the cleatwood was top heavy and coupled 20 feet long it was impossible to turn on an ordinary curve hence it became necessary at times to drive as far as possible then let 10 or 15 men lift the hind end of the wagon around by main strength when a sliding place was reached the men would hang on the upper side or attach ropes to the top and hold it thus preventing an upset on Tuesday we succeeded in reaching the foot of the last grade and on Wednesday morning began the ascent here was the rub the hill is about a mile and a half long very steep sliding rocky and filled with roots and stones added to which were great banks of snow packed solid by constant thawing progress was slow and tedious a roadway having to be cut in places while men with picks axes and shovels dug up rocks cut down trees and shoveled snow besides building up or cutting down one side of the roadway at 10 o'clock on Wednesday the 14th the boats were landed on the walls of the lake having traveled 440 miles from portland with scarcely a scratch to mar the paint Thursday morning the work of launching was commenced by covering the bottom of each skiff with inch boards firmly secured as also a shield in front of the bow they were carried to the lowest place to be found in the cliffs probably about 900 feet vertical measurement where a canyon descends at an angle of 35 or 40 degrees when a three-quarter inch rope was attached and in turn passed around a tree on the summit where a man was stationed to manage it directed by signals below one was lowered at a time accompanied by four men to guide and handle it besides this men were stationed at different points to signal to stop and thus regulate the paying out of rope every effort was made to send all loose stones on ahead to prevent an accident from above yet before the first boat had proceeded 300 feet in its descent a boulder came rolling from nearly the summit with increasing velocity and before anyone realized the danger had struck a rock in near proximity and bounded over the skiff passed between the men and within an inch of one fellow's head before the descent was completed the boards were torn from the first boat but extra precaution was taken with the second one about two-thirds of the way down a perfect shower of rocks came tumbling from a cliff to the left but strange as it may seem they either bounded over or around the men and boat so that no damage resulted at three o'clock the first skiff reached bottom somewhat scratched but not injured in any manner the second one was placed in the lake entirely uninjured at six o'clock p.m our tents were pitched in a beautiful spot in the immediate foreground to the north lies the lake with its 20 of miles of rugged cliffs standing abruptly from the water's edge to the left is wizard island on the top of which rests the witch's cauldron or crater like a great flat top beyond stands lair rock solemn grim and grand over 2 000 feet perpendicular while still beyond stands mount thielson the lightning rod of the cascades just to the east of the lake is mount scott partly covered with snow while close to the camp on the east is a high cliff known as cathedral rock running far down to the right and at last disappearing below the treetops to the south the scene was varied by a wide range of mountaintops stretching far away to california chief among which is snow captain beautiful pit just to the left the rough mountain view is changed to a charming plain in the midst of which is a broad expanse of water which proves to be clamoth lake about 30 miles distant Thursday evening dark and threatening clouds were suddenly seen to approach from this point accompanied by vivid flashes of lightning and loud peals of thunder a few large drops of rain had fallen when there was a sudden outburst of joy in camp as everyone glanced at the sides of cathedral rock which was suddenly illuminated by a light of deep orange to the west the sun was slowly sinking to rest when a glowing light spread itself over the dark clouds which became brighter and still brighter looking beyond a scene of unparalleled magnificence was spread before us through the centre hung long fleecy clouds lighted to a deep orange while above like a great curtain was spread a belt of olive green here and there were tints of crimson the delicacy of which no artist could approach above and parallel with the horizon stretched a long rift in clouds rendered marvelously rich in gold and garnet through which the blue sky beyond was visible slightly obscured by light fleecy clouds of silver during all this magnificent sight the electric storm raged in the south with unbated fury flashes of lightning and peals of thunder added solemnity to a scene of wonderful brilliance the sixteenth was spent in preparing the cleatwood for her final plunge over the cliffs in search of water the sled was made of very heavy timbers on which she was placed to keel up then lashed and braced in every conceivable manner until in fact she seemed a part of the sled itself guy ropes were placed on each corner to guide it in connection with a heavy hand spike Saturday morning the actual work of launching began by sliding the boat over a snowdrift in a canyon that slopes to the lake at about an angle of fifty degrees the cliff is probably one thousand feet high at this point the sled was attached by block and tackle to a tree on the summit and lowered nearly halfway when the bearing was shifted as far down as possible and a new start taken leaving the summit at seven thirty a.m. it required the most persistent work and constant care of fifteen men eight hours to reach the lake in the bottom of the canyon flows a stream of water that contributes very materially to the danger of such an undertaking as constant slides of rock are thus caused when the bottom seemed to be reached it was found that there still remained a sort of jump off or slide into the water perpendicular and about 15 feet high the water at this point is very deep and the question arose how shall we launch the boat now that we have got it here it was simply turned right side up again lashed to the sled and let partially down with the bow thrown out as far as possible it was held securely in this position while one of the men climbed aboard cut the lines and she shot forward in fine style not shipping a gallon of water although the bow was almost submerged to start with the moment the launching was complete there was a cry of unrestrained joy sent up from all present and our shouts were answered from the cliffs by waving of hats and blowing of foghorns with one impulse the cry was raised now for the island and in an incredibly short space of time both skiffs and the cleatwood were headed that way with four men at the oars we soon reached our destination and then returned to camp where a bountiful reap house awaited us every precaution was taken to clear the canyon of loose rocks nevertheless a few rolled down but were successfully dodged until the boat was actually in the water immediately after which a small boulder came down with terrific force captain davis stood directly in its course and not seeing it the other members of the party shouted to him to look out it being impossible for him to run he jumped under the framework or sled hanging where the boat left it and laid flat on the ground just as the stone struck a rock and the upper end of the frame it then struck captain davis in the back but its force had been so broken that it did no harm further than to make the spot feel sore the day after launching the cleatwood nine members of our party made the circuit of the lake in a sort of casual observation or tour of inspection the scenery was grand to a degree far beyond our most sanguine expectations four strong oarsmen soon brought us to lao rock and as we gazed in silent wonder at its rugged sides reaching nearly half a mile above us for the first time did we realize the amenity of such a spectacle never before did i fully understand the meaning of figures when they run up into the thousands of feet vertical measurement beyond lao rock we found a beautiful little bay and beyond it a larger one probably one mile long by a quarter of a mile deep here we stopped for lunch and when landing was surprised to find a long line of dead moths of large variety washed up by the waves and in such numbers that the air was laden with an unpleasant odour apparently about a first cousin to a slaughterhouse we also found here a narrow beach of small gravel running almost the entire length of the bay while further out in the lake the bottom is composed of sand as this point had not only never been named but probably was never before visited by human beings we decided to christen it cleatwood cove passing on our journey it was soon seen that the cliffs on the north side are not so high as those to the south in several places it appeared that good trails could easily be made to the water's edge over which a person might almost ride horseback and in one place without any grading whatever a good pack chain could descend with comparative ease about two o'clock a thundershow came suddenly upon us just as two beautiful grottos appeared in view into one of these the boat was run where we were entirely beyond the reach of rain it proved to be about 30 feet deep and 20 wide and an arched roof probably eight feet above the water while the rocky bottom could be distinctly seen 10 feet below the surface so perfect was its form that it almost seemed the hand of man had hewn it from the solid rock beyond it towered an immense cliff very high with broken rugged sides picture-esque and sublime which i insist on naming Dutton Cliff in honor of Captain Dutton who has done and is doing so much to make Crater Lake justly famous this point may be known from the fact that it lies directly opposite Lael Rock and between the two lowest places in the lake's walls immediately north of Dutton Cliff the elements have worn the sides of the mountain leaving a harder substance alternately colored red and yellow resembling the mansard roof of a cottage while in one place tall red chimneys stand aloft making all in all such a scene that cottage rock could scarcely be improved on for a name lying between the two points above referred to a break in the wall was found that is almost perpendicular but certainly does not exceed 500 feet in height this is by far the lowest point in the walls no time was lost in getting our surroundings underway the first was made about 100 yards from shore it was supposed that we might possibly find as much as 100 feet of water but as the lead ran out our excitement grew with each succeeding 100 feet until over 1200 feet were out at 1200 feet the machine stopped and our pent-up feelings exploded into one wild yell of delight for a number of days the soundings were continued the greatest depth recorded was 1,996 feet which making allowance for stretch of wire would give 2008 feet of the whole number made 18 are over 1,900 13 over 1,800 11 over 1,700 15 over 1,600 and 19 over 1,500 it was found that at the bottom of the northeastern end lies a plane of several square miles almost perfectly level while south of the center is a cliff about 900 feet high and west of the center seems to be cinder cone nearly 1200 feet in height with a crater in the center 250 feet deep its summit is 600 feet below the surface of the water on one occasion our party took five pounds of red fire which we intended to burn on the summit of wizard island but owing to the fact that the air was so filled with smoke as to destroy the effect our plan was changed and we took it to rogue river falls on our return here we met quite a number of hardy mountaineers and at nine o'clock left camp for the falls about one mile distant the night was very dark and a weird sort of scene it was as we climbed over logs and rocks lighting our way by tallow candles and a lantern that flickered dimly at last the bank of the stream was reached and while the noise of the rushing waters was intense nothing could be seen but the dim outline of something white far down below us at this point the walls are perpendicular and 180 feet high they're also solid rock from top to bottom directly opposite where we stood mill creek falls into rogue river 180 feet and this is what we came to see in order to get the benefit of the red light it was necessary for someone to climb down to the water this duty fell to a stranger in the party who made the descent during the day and myself he led the way carrying a dim lantern and I followed as best I could the rocks are covered with a remarkably thick layer of moss which is kept very wet by the rising mist the path if such it might be termed led along the sides of the cliff at an angle of about 45 degrees as we cautiously climbed from rock to rock it was a sort of feeling of intensified interest that overcame us when we realized that a single misstep would precipitate us to the rocks below and worst of all possibly we never would be missed the bed of the stream was reached at last and the fire ignited close to the falls ye gods what a transformation suddenly the canyon which could not be seen before was as bright as day lighted by a fire so brilliant that we could not look upon it crimson air and crimson water crimson walls and crimson everywhere no magician of the arabians ever conjured up by a stroke of his wand a spectacle more sublime it was one of transcendent beauty upon which the human eye seldom rests and when it does its possessor is spellbound by the bewildering vision one almost loses the power of speech in the desperate struggle to see and comprehend the scene and before it is realized the light dies away and darkness reigns supreme rendered tenfold more dense by the splendor of so magnificent a tableau near the base of duck and cliff stands a solitary rock probably 100 feet high by 200 in length and nearly the same breadth that while not seen by the present generation of indians is nevertheless known to them and is a special object of superstitious dread they consider it as a peculiarly ferocious monster but are unable to describe its characteristics it stands in the lake entirely alone and about 50 yards from shore standing on the cliffs five miles to the west and looking across the lake this strange rock is plainly visible in the sunlight its rugged peaks reaching aloft giving it the appearance of a full rigged ship at anchor should a cloud pass before the sun as the shadow strikes the rock it will pass from view as effectually as though it had ceased to exist while sounding the lake in 1886 i caused the party of topographical engineers to be landed here for observations but it was so rugged that the most diligent search failed to reveal a level place large enough to accommodate the tripod attached to their instruments and we were compelled to resort to a point on shore for the purpose i have never learned its indian name but among the whites it is known as the phantom ship to those who enjoy the noble sport of hunting the vicinity of crater lake is especially attractive great numbers of deer bear and panther roam through the timber infantic security inviting the keen eye and steady nerve of the sportsman although passionately fond of such sport myself the grandeur and sublimity of the surroundings so overcame me with desire to see and prosecute our explorations that i forgot my love for a running shot in an inordinate desire to climb over the cliffs and view the wonderful place from every conceivable point my companions were no less affected and the result was that we ran out of meat and applied to a native sheepherder for mutton chops he scowled upon us for a moment then informed our spokesman that when he butchered he never saved the heads while running a line of soundings from play a rock to v-day cliff across the lake one day a strong wind sprung up from the south accompanied by black clouds and a storm seemed imminent we had proceeded about three miles across when we were suddenly startled by a loud noise as though a multitude of men were savagely beating tin pans in a very few minutes the southwestern cliffs became white and we could plainly see the colour line advancing to the north until all the cliffs to the west seemed covered with snow to add to so strange a sight a good sized waterfall began pouring over play a rock and falling to the lake two thousand feet below within half an hour from the beginning of the storm the waterfalls ceased the cliffs became dark again the wind shifted to the northwest and drove millions of hailstones upon us sufficiently large to make us wince when struck especially when struck all over with no possible means of escape the only accident to any of our party during the sojung befell a highly respected mule attached to the topographical engineer corps one day as the party passed along the east side of Dutton Cliff progress seemed almost blocked by high precipices a point was found overlooking a yawning chasm where a large tree had fallen and lodged by throwing in stones and brush a sort of trail was made to terra firma beyond the backbone of the mountain over this the pack train was passed safely except a mule that was blind in one eye he bought a reputation for dignity and sobriety that many well-to-do mule might envy however when just at the point which above all others should have received his undivided attention he became gay and festive and as a consequence fell partway over the precipice by dint of hard labour he was drawn back but little the worse for where his pack was removed and he again started across again however he became frisky and pitched headlong over a rocky precipice five hundred feet high as his limbs mixed with those of the trees below the thoughts of the spectators above were there goes all that is mortal of croppy who climbed to the top of Mount Shasta but died in a lonely canyon by his own hand in a fitted temporary insanity let him rip one day while at work on the lake my attention was called to what seemed to be a tall full bearded man standing on the southern portion of Leo Rock's summit one foot was placed a little forward of the other and the knee bent slightly but naturally while before him stood a gun his hands were clasped over the muzzle as he gazed intently to the north just behind him so the boy apparently about 15 years of age they seemed entirely too natural not to be flesh and blood and yet persons at that distance would not be visible to the naked eye as we were two miles out on the lake day after day as our work progressed their position remained the same and in the absence of a better explanation we decided them to be trees Quater Lake is but a striking memento of a dread past imagine a vast mountain six by seven miles through at an elevation of 8 000 feet with the top removed and the inside hollowed out then filled with the clearest water in the world to within two thousand feet of the top then place a round island in one end 845 feet high then dig a circular hole tapering to the centre like a funnel 100 feet deep and 475 feet in diameter and you will have a perfect representation of Quater Lake it is hard to comprehend what an immense affair it is to those living in New York City I would say Quater Lake is large enough to have Manhattan Randalls wards and Blackwells islands dropped into it side by side without touching the walls or Chicago or Washington City might do the same our own fair city of Portland with all her suburbs from the city park to Mount Tabor from Albina to Selwood Inclusive could find ample room on the bottom of the lake on the other hand if it were possible to place the lake at its present elevation above either of these cities it would be over a mile to the surface of the water and a mile and three quarters to the top of Lea Rock of this distance the ascent would be through water for 2 000 feet to those living in New Hampshire it might be said the surface of the water is 23 feet higher than the summit of Mount Washington what an immense affair it must have been ages upon ages ago when long before the hot breath of a volcano soiled its hoary head standing as a proud monarch with its feet upon earth and its head in the heavens it towered far far above the mountain ranges I looked far down upon the snowy peaks of hood and chastre and snuffed the air beyond the reach of Everest then streams of fire began to shoot forth great seas of lava were held beyond the earth beneath the element seemed bent upon establishing hell upon earth and fixing its throne upon this great mountain at last its foundation gave way and it sank forever from sight down down down deep into the bowels of the earth leaving a great black smoking chasm which succeeding ages filled with pure fresh water giving to our day and generation one of the most beautiful lakes within the vision of man in conclusion I will say crater lake is one of the grandest points of interest on earth here all the ingenuity of nature seems to have been exerted to the fullest capacity to build one grand or inspiring temple within which to live and from which to gaze upon the surrounding world and say here would I dwell and live forever here would I make my home from choice the universe is my kingdom and this my throne end of crater lake one of the world's great natural wonders kimberley and the diamond minds by frank g carpenter travel collection one this is a Libravox recording all Libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Libravox.org recording by Betty B Kimberly and the diamond minds we begin our travels this morning in the heart of the richest diamond field of the world we are in kimberley on the high plateau of south Africa almost 700 miles north of Cape Town and 500 miles from the east coast in the middle of a vast sandy plain with no trees except those in the city itself the land is almost a desert with scarcely a hill in sight to break the view it has no water nearer than the vol river which is 17 miles away and when the wind is high the sand blows through the streets penetrating every crack and crevice of the houses to look at the country one would not suppose it worth anything and the stranger might ask how this thriving city with its electric lights fine shops hotels and daily newspapers came to exist he might wonder at the well-dressed crowds on the streets and at the business which goes on everywhere he would soon learn that kimberley is one of the richest towns upon earth the land about it produces more wealth than almost any other of the same area and this wealth comes from the diamonds found in the ground where the 95 percent of all the diamonds now produced come from this region and larger pure and finer stones are found here than anywhere else within about 40 years more than 15 tons of diamonds have been taken out of this part of South Africa a ton makes quite a load for two horses and if you will imagine as many diamonds as 30 horses all pulling at once could haul you may have some idea of the enormous quantity of the jewels comprised in the 15 tons it takes only a small diamond to be worth 100 dollars and as you may imagine this product is worth many many millions as much as 25 million dollars worth of diamonds are now taken out of kimberley in one year and thousands of men are working getting the precious stones out of the earth in ancient times india supplied the chief diamonds of the world then some were found in brazil not far from bahia and thousands of diamond seekers rush to that place no one then supposed that there were diamonds in south africa and it was not until 1867 that a man named john o'reilly made the first diamond discovery o'reilly was hunting near the ball river when he stopped to rest one night on the farm of shock van nickirk a dutchman who lived there a way off in the wilderness as the hunter chatted with his host he saw some beautiful pebbles from the banks of the ball river lying on the table he admired them and his host told him to take them along if he liked he did so and among them found one that would cut glass he showed it to a jeweler who told him it was a diamond and that it was worth 2500 dollars as soon as this became known both europeans and natives began to search that region for diamonds but it was about two years before another large stone was discovered this was found by a hotentot who traded it to shock van nickirk for a little drove of cattle and some sheep worth about 2000 dollars van nickirk sold the stone to the diamond merchants for 50 000 dollars and they sent it to england where after cutting it was bought by the countess of dudley for more than twice that amount it proved to be a pure white diamond weighing about three and one-half ounces at the news of this great find many men came and camped along the banks of the ball and orange rivers digging up the gravel and searching for diamonds they found none to speak of along the orange river but some here and there along the ball and they gradually pushed out searching the land until they came to where we are now here more of the precious stones were discovered than anywhere else and they dug up the ground and washed it to see if some might not lie beneath after a short time they found several places near kimberley where there were quantities of diamonds mixed with the earth running down no one knows how far under the ground at the surface were a few feet of red sand and under that a somewhat thicker deposit of limestone below the limestone lay the hard clay containing the diamonds the clay is blue in color and the diamondiferous earth is called blue ground it is composed of fragments of many kinds of rock and among them the diamonds the holes cemented as it were into one solid mass of clay the blue ground extends downward in the shape of great pipes or funnels when taken out and dried in the sun being wet with water from time to time it crumbles to pieces so that the rocks and clay can be washed away and the diamonds picked out at first mines were sunk everywhere throughout the diamond territory to learn where the best deposits were and from them it was ascertained that there were four principal fields all lying about kimberley in a circle not more than three and one-half miles in diameter these mines are the kimberley the debirs the twat span and the bullfontein at the beginning the mines were worked from above like a stone quarry or gravel pit the blue ground being carried to the surface in baskets over cables of wire then great shafts or pits were sunk along one side of the blue ground deposit and tunnels were made from the shafts by which the blue rock was brought out and carried to the surface by machinery operated by steam all the mining is now on a grand scale and the best of the diamond territory has been bought by one company known as the debirs company which has a capital of 20 million dollars and practically controls the diamond product of south africa we have letters of introduction to the managers of this company and through them are furnished a guide who takes us down into the works and shows us how diamonds are mined we go to the shaft and step into the elevator the guide gives a signal and we sink down down into the darkness now we pass a tunnel where half-naked kaffirs are blasting out the rock and loading it upon trucks which they shove over tramways to the shaft only to drop again into the darkness and descend until at last we stop more than a thousand feet underground we walk off through a tunnel following the car track to where the miners are working they are black-skinned natives wearing little more than a cloth about the waist some have picks and are digging down the blue rock others are lifting the great lumps into cars and others are wheeling the trucks to the shafts it is hot and drops of sweat stand out on their black skins as they work the mine is lighted by electricity and we can see everything as plainly as though it were day our guide shows us the rock and we take some up in our hands it feels like soap and we look in vain for diamonds in it after a while we go with the cars up the elevator and follow them from the top of the shaft to the drying fields where men are spreading the blue rock over the ground the hole looks like a freshly plowed field of blue earth the great clods are as hard as sandstone and it requires months of weathering before they're ready for washing from time to time water is sprinkled over them and now and then the field is harrowed these processes make the rock soft it begins to crumble and is then ready for washing the blue stuff is now taken up and put into cylinders and pans and world round and round water is emitted from time to time the blue clay melts and flows off in a mud and the gravel containing the diamonds rolls down over sloping iron tables covered with grease the diamonds which are heavier than the other stones fall to the bottom and stick in the grease so that every now and then the grease containing the diamonds can be scraped off it is then melted and all the diamonds are saved as we look at them they do not seem very bright a rough diamond is like a white stone and shows but little of the brilliancy it will have when cut and polished the rough diamonds are next taken to the company's office where they are cleaned with acids and carefully classified with reference to color size and purity they are then made into parcels and valued and are sold to local buyers who represent the chief diamond dealers of the world these men ship them to europe and the united states where they are cut and polished and made into jewelry the chief diamond polishers of the world are in amsterdam we've already visited them during our travels in europe in another book of this series south african diamonds are of a great variety of colors the most valuable are pure white but others are green blue pink brown yellow and orange the size purity and color determine the value in march 1888 a yellow diamond was found in the debir's mine which weighed 428 carats in the rough and 228 carats when it was cut but this was surpassed by a diamond weighing 970 carats discovered in the orange free state six years later a still larger one weighing over 3000 carats was found in the transvaal in 1905 as we walk through the mine we ask our guide if diamonds are not often stolen he replies that this is sometimes the case although every precaution is used to prevent it the natives who are employed must each engage to stay in the mines for three months they live while not at work in compounds or great open squares connected with the mines each square is lined with the iron sheds where the men sleep and is surrounded by a close high iron fence it has a roof of fine wire netting to prevent anyone throwing the diamonds which he may have stolen to his friends outside the men are carefully watched while at work to see that they do not either swallow the diamonds or conceal them about their persons and they are often searched to find whether they have not hidden a stone under their armpits between their toes or even in sores made for the purpose in their bodies each man is given a new suit of clothes when he enters the mine and he is stripped and carefully examined before he leaves in addition to this the law has severe penalties for buying diamonds of natives or others who cannot show just how they got them and of kimberley and the diamond mines visit to the pyramids by george jones travel collection one this is a liber vox recording all liber vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liber vox.org recording by callie mcman a visit to the pyramids from excursions to kairos Jerusalem Damascus and baobak from the united stateship delaware during her recent cruise earliest dawn on the 25th found us up and our court filled with animals of all shapes and sizes from the towering dromedary to the wee bit of a donkey and each one was allowed to choose his mode of traveling for himself in the end i believe the largest of us were found on the donkeys and the smallest perched on the backs of dromedaries and as i was among the former i am used myself along the streets with watching my more ambitious companions in danger of being caught up as was absalom if not by their hair at least by the clothes and left dangling at the end of the beams that everywhere project from the sides of a turkish bazaar the gate of the dromedaries also extremely uncomfortable the rider and less accustomed to it being tossed from side to side at each of the long steps of the animal i believe when we reach the pyramids every one of our ambitious comrades selected some more humble animal for the rest of the journey and here i may be allowed to give a tribute of just praise to the egyptian donkeys they are extremely small but beautifully formed and are of a mouse color with a streak of black running along the back and intersected by another crossing it at right angles and passing it down the foreshoulders these black lines are believed by the superstitious of the eastern countries to be copied from the cross and to be here in consequence of our saviors having selected this animal for his entry into Jerusalem the egyptian donkey is very gentle and tractable and for writing is the most agreeable of the donkey tribe that i've ever seen thanks to the tact of mr glidden and of our caterer lieutenant s the preparations for our excursion were admirably made and we got off without confusion although as we had provisions for two days tents etc our train consisted of 70 animals and our company amounting to about as many persons comprised a singular variety of nations and languages preceded by torches we marshaled ourselves in the dark and narrow streets and the word being given at length we put ourselves in motion get out of my way there cries an aspirant after high places to one of the more humble elevation and the way being cleared on sweeps the dromedary at a rapid pace the saucy occupant of his back now beginning to bob up and down and trying in vain to find something by which he may steady himself and in his efforts to check his beast only making it go faster which is the way cry at once half a dozen travelers lost in the mazes of the streets and each advising a different course only heightening the embarrassment till at last they yield the reins to their more sensible mules which in a brief space succeed in extricating them johnny turk here lengthen this stare for me says another when the arab groom understanding only the gesture and his eyes already offended by its unwanted and ungraceful length draws it up still higher till he brings the rider in the graceful attitude of the turkish horseman with the knees up almost to the chin what an unsightly attitude the arab murmurs to himself with the legs sprawling about when he can bring them up close to the breast to our great satisfaction we emerged at length from the narrow streets and had the pleasure of riding on without incessant danger of scaling our ankles and knees arriving at old kyro we were ferried across the river passing in our course the head of the island already noticed and by the edifice with the famous nilometer opposite to old kyro as i've elsewhere remarked is the village of giza from which the largest pyramids which we were now about to visit take their distinctive name giza is celebrated also for its ovens for hatching chickens passing this we had now the pyramids in full view before us nine miles distant but separated from us only by the level plain the morning air was cool and pleasant our animals traveled well and we left the ground rapidly behind us but as we journeyed on disappointment took possession of every one of us the fabrics of which we'd been reading with wonder and admiration from our childhood were before us there were the pyramids but how diminutive still as we approached them we watched to see whether they would not at last appear in that magnitude and grandeur which we had always connected with them but it was all in vain each one indulged in some epithet of dissatisfaction and even of contempt and thus we reached the bottom of the eminence on which they stand but when we had wound up its sides and reached the piece of table land on which they are erected when we checked our animals at the foot of the first of them the pyramid of chaos and looked up there they were again the pyramids and grandeur far than our fancy had ever pictured them the effect indeed is almost overpowering their simplicity contributes to this as well as their vastness there is nothing to break up and confuse the attention the mind without effort embraces the whole object one single idea occupies the attention a single impression is made but it is astounding and we feel all the sublimity of the object because by this single impression so great an effect is produced we cast our eyes upward we look again at ourselves and we wonder that we are so diminutive we who just now were passing sentence of condemnation and looking with contempt on this mighty work we sink into nothingness beside it and wish to dismount and get yet lower and from an humbler place yielded the deep homage that the mind willingly pays to greatness this is great this is very grand was the language from the lips of many and i believe from the hearts of all as we passed along the base of these stupendous monuments there are three of them at this place called after their reputed founders the pyramids of keops sephronese and mysirenas they stand on a natural platform or piece of table land 150 feet in height projected from the adjoining range of mountains that of keops is the largest and has been repeatedly measured but on account of the rubbish that has accumulated along the sides it is difficult to do this correctly and there is great discrepancy in the results herodotus makes its height 800 and the length of each side 800 straw bow 625 and 600 lebron 616 and 704 theveno 520 and 612 davison 461 and 746 and french savans 470 and 704 as the angles are exposed to view quite down to the foundation there is less difficulty in ascertaining the number of layers which is said to be 206 each layer being of smaller dimensions than the next lower a series of steps is thus formed each about 30 inches in height and 20 in width the pyramid of keops is truncated terminating above in a platform of about 20 feet square that of sephronese is continued up to a sharp point and is coated from this about one fifth of the way down with triangular blocks so as to present at this part a perfectly smooth surface is supposed that the whole of this pyramid was originally coated in this manner and that it was covered with hieroglyphics i ascended to the smooth portion of its surface but could discover no traces of such inscriptions the three pyramids stand nearly in a straight line running north and south and face exactly the four cardinal points belzoni measured that of sephronese and found it to be 684 feet on each side at the base and 456 in height that of my sereness is much smaller and has been mutilated so as to be rather an unsightly object they are composed chiefly of secondary limestone taken from the adjoining mountains as the angles of the pyramids have suffered from the weather and probably also from human violence and have thus been broken into smaller steps we were able without much difficulty to ascend to the summit of that of keops the natives many of whom had been attracted from a neighboring village by the sight of strangers when seen from this elevation appeared dwindled into the mirrors pygmies a visit into the interior was a matter of greater difficulty i had been over to examine the pyramid of sephronese and on returning to that of keops found that the party had entered carrying with them all candles so that i had to choose between remaining without or groping my way along in the dark taking a couple of Arabs who profess to know the way i clambered over a quantity of rubbish rolled down from the upper portions of the pyramid and reaching to the entrance this is on the northern side about 30 feet above the base and at an equal distance from each of the angles we here entered a square passage three and a half feet on each side and inclining at an angle of 26 degrees which it is worthy of remark is the inclination of the entrance passage in each of the pyramids yet explored this passage was lined quite around with polished granite and the descent would have been dangerous but for rude steps or holes for the feet cut in the lower flags in more modern times this passage is about 100 feet in length and by the time we reached its extremity daylight had quite deserted us i found myself now in a place where i could stand upright and after stumbling over some blocks was brought to a stand by the rough wall where the hand of violence had been at work probably endeavoring to force a passage into some of the chambers here an arab got before to drag and another behind to push me and by their good help i soon found myself swinging in mid-air in the blackness of darkness but presently reached a ledge about 18 inches wide regularly formed and ascending at the angle already noticed following this up i at length began to hear voices and soon after to my great satisfaction found myself in a lighted chamber and once more among my companions this is what is called the king's chamber a name given to it on account of a sarcophagus of red granite seven feet six inches in length and of proportionate width and depth highly polished but entirely plain this apartment is 37 feet long 17 wide and about 20 in height and is cased in every part with polished egyptian granite leaving this chamber and returning part of the way i found that the ledge on which i had ascended had at its side a passage to another apartment lower down than the king's chamber this is 17 feet long 14 wide and 12 feet in height and is also cased with polished granite there are other chambers in this pyramid but of irregular shape and it is uncertain whether they were part of the original design or are accidental a pit descending with several offsets to a depth of 155 feet or to a level with the Nile with which it probably had a communication has also been explored it is probable that there are several other passages not yet discovered and among them one by which there was a subterranean entrance to the pyramid a passage apparently of this character having been recently discovered in the pyramid of sephrones for what we know of the interior of this latter pyramid which stands within 100 yards of that of chaos we are indebted to the most enterprising of all modern travelers the patient and yet acute Belzoni Herodotus had declared that there were no chambers in this pyramid and accept a few lazy efforts of the scavans of the french invading army no attempt had been made to ascertain whether this writer was correct or not the ambition of Belzoni having been fired by his success amid the monuments of thebes he determined to make an effort upon this pyramid and he began first by attempting to force a passage into the northern side this still remains as when he abandoned it and on examining it I was struck with astonishment at the perseverance and determined resolution of the operator he has cut a large passage in many places nine or ten feet square for a distance of 100 feet into the heart of the pyramid the hole being through a solid mass of stones often of prodigious size the danger as well as the expense of this mode of operating compelled him at length to abandon it but his resolution was not to be overcome he examined again the pyramid of chaos and after careful add measurements discovering that in this of sephronese at a point corresponding exactly with the entrance into the former the surface of the pyramid was sunk a little he commenced here anew the native workmen looking on in wonder and calling him magnune or fool having removed a quantity of rubbish and cut through the outer rocks he at length found his toils rewarded slabs of granite like those lining the entrance into the other pyramid began to appear and to his joy he found at length a similar passage open here before him it is four feet in height and three feet six inches in width having removed the rubbish which had fallen into it he reached at the bottom a portcullis of stone which he says stared me in the face and said naeplu ultra putting an end to all my projects with great labor this was raised at length sufficiently to allow him to creep under and after 30 days he adds i had the pleasure of finding myself in the way of the central chamber of one of the two great pyramids of egypt which have long been the admiration of beholders a passage cut out of the solid rock brought him from this to the entrance of a large chamber i walked he says slowly two or three paces and then stood still to contemplate the place where i was whatever it might be i certainly considered myself in the center of that pyramid which from time immemorial had been the subject of obscure conjectures of many hundred travelers both ancient and modern my torch formed of a few wax candles gave but a glimmering light i could however clearly distinguish the principal objects i naturally turned my eyes to the west end of the chamber looking for the sarcophagus which i strongly expected to see in the same situation as that in the first pyramid but i was disappointed when i saw nothing there the chamber has appointed or sloping ceiling and many of the stones had been removed from their places evidently by someone in search of treasure on my advancing towards the west end i was agreeably surprised to find there was a sarcophagus buried on a level with the floor a closer examination led him to the discovery of bones in the sarcophagus which on being sent to london were pronounced to be those of a bull or of that species of animal a fact which strengthens the opinion that the pyramids were erected by the egyptians not for the burial of their kings but for religious purposes the enterprising traveler however found that he was not the first that had penetrated these mysterious recesses the covering of the sarcophagus had been partly removed and on going further he discovered both roman and arabic inscriptions the latter stating that the master Muhammad Ahmed had opened them this chamber is hewn out of the solid rock and is 46 by 16 feet at the sides and 23 feet six inches in height he discovered some other chambers and numerous passages together with a well as in the other pyramid adjoining the pyramid of sephronese on the south are the ruins of a large enclosure formed of huge stones while on the north and west are scattered a great number of tombs of heavy and solemn architecture forming entire streets in these the stones are also large they had flat roofs above which rose a parapet with heavy moldings some are in good preservation but most have suffered greatly from the hand of time or more probably of human violence the roofs having fallen in and the sands of the desert having entered and filled them up their inner walls are covered with stucco on which are painted numerous figures of men and beasts in procession or engaged in religious sacrifices or in agriculture we opened a passage into one of them and were glad to find in it a refuge from the fierce sun which now seemed to be shedding fire upon us and upon the glowing sands all around the tomb consisted of three chambers two in good preservation and one uncovered all of them ornamented in the manner just described it was large enough for all our party except the Arabs who seemed to care little for the sun our hampers being dragged in we enjoyed here a comfortable meal after which retiring to the outer chamber and making a pillow of the sand a gaze on the dim figures traced on the wall and indulged in antiquarian reveries end of a visit to the pyramids by george jones recording by colleen micman