But for its oval shape he might deem it the crater of some extinct volcano.

But then, where is the lava that should have been projected from it?
With the exception of the two hillocks on each hand, all the country around, far as the eye can reach, is level as the bosom of a placid lake.

And otherwise unlike a volcanic crater is the concavity itself.

No gloom down there, no black scoriae, no returning streams of lava, nor _debris_ of pumice-stone; but, on the contrary, a smiling vegetation--trees with foliage of different shades, among which can be distinguished the dark-green frondage of the live-oak and pecan, the more brilliant verdure of cottonwoods, and the flower-loaded branches of the wild China-tree.

In their midst a glassy disc that speaks of standing water, with here and there a fleck of white, which tells of a stream with foaming cascades and cataracts.
Near the lakelet, in the centre, a tiny column of blue smoke ascends over the tree-tops.