'But,' as Mr.Manross says truly, 'in no place is it possible to form those bowl-like depressions round the observer described by former travellers.' What we did see is, that the fresh pitch oozes out at the lines of least resistance, namely, in the channels between the older and more hardened masses, usually at the upper ends of them; so that one may stand on pitch comparatively hard, and put one's hand into pitch quite liquid, which is flowing softly out, like some ugly fungoid growth, such as may be seen in old wine-cellars, into the water.

One such pitch-fungus had grown several yards in length in the three weeks between our first and second visit; and on another, some of our party performed exactly the same feat as Mr. Manross-- 'In one of the star-shaped pools of water, some five feet deep, a column of pitch had been forced perpendicularly up from the bottom.

On reaching the surface of the water it had formed a sort of centre table, about four feet in diameter, but without touching the sides of the pool.

The stem was about a foot in diameter.

I leaped out on this table, and found that it not only sustained my weight, but that the elasticity of the stem enabled me to rock it from side to side.