The Monster of Lake Lametrie | Page 2

to
grow louder momentarily. Framingham ----
MAY 3RD, MORNING.
Such a night of terror we have been through. Last evening, as I sat
writing in my diary, I heard a sudden hiss, and, looking down, saw
wriggling across the earthen floor what I at first took to be a serpent of
some kind, and then discovered was a stream of water which, coming
in contact with the fire, had caused the startling hiss. In a moment,
other streams had darted in, and before I had collected my senses
enough to move, the water was two inches deep everywhere and
steadily rising.
Now I knew the cause of the roaring, and, rousing Framingham, I half
dragged him, half carried him to the door, and digging our, feet into the
chinks of the wall of the house, we climbed up to its top. There was
nothing else to do, for above us and behind us was the unscalable cliff,
and on each side the ground sloped away rapidly, and it would have
been impossible to reach the high ground at the entrance to the basin.
After a time we lighted matches, for with all this commotion there was
little air stirring, and we could see the water, now half-way up the side
of the house, rushing to the west with the force and velocity of the
current of a mighty river, and every little while it hurled tree-trunks
against the house-walls with a terrific shock that threatened to batter
them down. After an hour or so, the roaring began to decrease, and

finally there was an absolute silence. The water, which reached to
within a foot of where we sat, was at rest, neither rising nor falling.
Presently a faint whispering began and became a stertorous breathing,
and then a rushing like that of the wind and a roaring rapidly increasing
in volume, and the lake was in motion again, but this time the water
and its swirling freight of tree-trunks flowed by the house toward the
east, and was constantly falling, and out in the centre of the lake the
beams of the moon were darkly reflected by the sides of a huge
whirlpool, streaking the surface of polished blackness down, down,
down the vortex into the beginning of whose terrible depths we looked
from our high perch.
This morning the lake is back at its usual level. Our mules are drowned,
our boat destroyed, our food damaged, my specimens and some of my
instruments injured, and Framingham is very ill. We shall have to
depart soon, although I dislike exceedingly to do so, as the disturbance
of last night, which is clearly like the one described by Father LaMetrie,
has undoubtedly brought up from the bowels of the earth some strange
and interesting things. Indeed, out in the middle of the lake where the
whirlpool subsided, I can see a large quantity of floating things; logs
and branches, most of them probably, but who knows what else?
Through my glass I can see a tree-trunk, or rather stump, of enormous
dimensions. From its width I judge that the whole tree must have been
as large as some of the Californian big trees. The main part of it
appears to be about ten feet wide and thirty feet long. Projecting from it
and lying prone on the water is a limb, or root, some fifteen feet long,
and perhaps two or three feet thick. Before we leave, which will be as
soon as Framingham is able to go, I shall make a raft and visit the mass
of driftwood, unless the wind providentially sends it ashore.
MAY 4TH, EVENING.
A day of most remarkable and wonderful occurrences. When I arose
this morning and looked through my glass, I saw that the mass of
driftwood still lay in the middle of the lake, motionless on the glassy
surface, but the great black stump had disappeared. I was sure it was

not hidden by the rest of the driftwood, for yesterday it lay some
distance from the other logs, and there had been no disturbance of wind
or water to change its position. I therefore concluded that it was some
heavy wood that needed to become but slightly waterlogged to cause it
to sink.
Framingham having fallen asleep at about ten, I sallied forth to look
along the shores for specimens, carrying with me a botanical can, and a
South American machete, which I have possessed since a visit to Brazil
three years ago, where I learned the usefulness of this sabre-like thing.
The shore was strewn with bits of strange plants and shells, and I was
stooping to pick one up, when suddenly I felt my clothes plucked, and
heard a snap behind me, and turning about I saw -- but I won't describe