Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/123

] sites of several native villages, whose names are spoken of as of no very distant date, and we have every reason to believe that the face of this land, and especially in this neighbourhood, has been much altered by volcanic disturbances, of which the extensive and numerous smaller craters, the cleft mountain, and the thermal springs are so many striking evidences. Although we were told that the lake is very shallow, yet on this point we may have been mistaken, as I perceive Dr. Dieffenbach, in speaking of it, says it is about one square mile and a half in extent, and apparently of great depth: in some places its borders are steep, and consist of basaltic lavas. It is, perhaps, an old crater: and indeed there is a tradition amongst the natives, that a large village with its inhabitants was suddenly engulphed during an earthquake.

The net was prepared and laid out by the assistance of a native canoe, which fortunately happened to be near the spot to which our guide had taken us. The first haul, in which we were assisted by the natives, gave us nothing but roots and limbs of trees, to their great amusement, and our net was very much torn: this occupied us some time to repair, when we moved to a more clear-looking space; but here we were almost equally unsuccessful, a few mussels and some very small fish, (valuable additions, however, to our collection of natural history,) were all we procured. The natives of the neighbourhood, who had collected in