deck hands to throw the snake out, whilst others were fishing out the young man who had jumped overboard. Captain Busby, fearing that some other accident might happen before reaching the hotel, thought it best that passengers should occupy their state-rooms until a landing was made at the hotel. He said with so much confusion it would be impossible for him to land his gondola safely. Captain Jack, of the hotel, was watching the movements of Captain Busby, and complimented him for his dexterity. He walked down from the hotel and escorted the guests up who had just arrived. The hotel is of the Irish style of architecture, with parlor, kitchen, dining and bedroom all in the same room, the whole being heated by a hot air furnace. I have not been to the Lake for some time, but hear that great improvements have been made, and it is the object of the proprietor of the hotel to turn the attention of Northern visitors to Florida every Winter in that direction, believing that it is the healthiest place in the United States. It is very accessible--the Norfolk and Western railroad passing through its northern boundary, and the Suffolk and Carolina Short Line or Grand Trunk railroad on its western, which by running a railroad from Skinnerville, on the Grand Trunk, would bring the Lake Hotel within a few minutes' ride from Suffolk, and with little or no inconvenience to invalids coming from the rigid climate of the North. I am told that all snakes remain in a torpid state during the winter, and no danger might be expected from them, and as the floors of the hotel would be kept tight no vermin could crawl through. There can be no doubt that the Lake of the Dismal Swamp must become the great centre of health-seekers, and that at an early day. Its location and advantages, the known healthliness of the place, to say nothing of its beauty and former renown, is sufficient to attract the attention of persons that seek the Sunny South from the cold and rigorous climate of the extreme Northern States of the Union. It is true that some writers pronounce the warm and genial climate of the Sunny South to be a fraud, practiced to allure the unsuspecting. That cannot be so. It is universally known that the Dismal Swamp is the healthiest place in the known world. Where can you find a location in which a death has not occurred in a hundred years? It cannot be named. CHAPTER VIII. THE FUTURE FOR THE DISMAL SWAMP.