Chicago, Oct. 14.—Editor of the Herald:—In your very interesting “Missing Links” of to-day you mention the great sunken lake in the Cascade Mountains as the most deeply sunken lake in the world. This reminded me of a lake similar to this which I visited while traveling in the West Indies in 1891. This lake is situated in the island of St. Vincent on the highest peak of the Souffrière range of mountains, 4,500 feet above the level of the sea.
It is one mile and a half down to the surface of the water and like the Cascade Lake the depth of the water is unknown.
Soundings were taken many years ago by Lieutenant Smith, of the United States navy, but with no result. The lake is almost a complete circle and is about three or four miles in circumference.
The color of the water is light olive, but there are times when it changes to an intense yellow and is saturated with sulphur. It was in the latter state that I saw it in 1891, and so thick was the sulphur that two of our party who ventured to bathe came out with a thin coating of sulphur on many parts of their body and emitting so strong an odor that we were forced to quarantine them for some hours.
Ed Fitzgerald.
LOFTY LAKES OF THE WORLD.
The most loftily situated lakes are found among the Himalaya Mountains in Thibet. Their altitudes do not, however, seem to have been accurately gauged, for different authorities give widely different figures regarding them. According to some, Lake Manasurovara, one of the sacred lakes of Thibet, is between 19,000 and 20,000 feet above the level of the sea, and if this is so it is undoubtedly the loftiest lake in the world. Two other Thibetan lakes, those of Cholamoo and Surakol, are stated to be 17,000 and 15,400 feet in altitude respectively. For a long time it was supposed that Lake Titicaca, in South America, was the loftiest in the world. It covers about 4,500 square miles, and is 924 feet above the sea. In spite of inexactitude with regard to the measurements of the elevation of the Thibetan lakes, they are, no doubt, considerably higher than this and any others.—New York Telegram.