He passed another lake, the eastern shores of which were adorned with dark, high forests: on the north and south were apparently endless plains and meadows, embellished with islets and promontories covered with trees. Whilst he was navigating this lake, he was exposed to the most tremendous storm of thunder and lightning that he had ever witnessed. The lofty forests bent beneath the fury of the blast, and the sturdy limbs of the trees cracked under the weight of the wind. Groves were torn up; and the spreading branches of the trees were rent asunder, and, like leaves or stubble, were whirled aloft in the air. After a while the wind and rain abated. Mr. Bartram then crossed the lake, about a mile in length, and arrived in safety at a plantation near its southern extremity. Here he found that nearly all the buildings had been overturned by the hurricane; and that a hundred acres of indigo plants, almost ripe for cutting, and several acres of sugar-canes, had been ruined. About four miles beyond this plantation, Mr. Bartram was shown a vast fountain of hot mineral water, which issued from a ridge or bank of the river, in a great cove or bay. The water, though hot and of a disagreeable brassy and vitriolic taste, and very offensive to the smell, was perfectly transparent, and exhibited to view a prodigious number of fish, and alligators, which were lying about the bottom. Mr. Bartram now returned, in his canoe, to the station called the _Upper Store_. Thence, in company with five persons who had been commissioned to make some commercial arrangements with the Indians, he set out for an Indian town called _Cuscowilla_. For four or five miles they travelled westward, over a level plain, which, before and on each side of them, appeared like a green meadow, thinly planted with low and spreading pine-trees. The whole surface seemed clad with grass, herbage, and low shrubs, and with many kinds of plants, which were rare and highly interesting. Here also many species of birds were seen, the plumage of some of which was extremely beautiful. Snakes, lizards, and insects were also very abundant. Beyond this plain was a hill, ornamented with a great variety of herbaceous plants and grasses, and with a magnificent grove of pines. After the pine-groves were passed, the travellers entered a district called the _Sand-hills_. They encamped, for the first night, at the _Half-way Pond_. This is a lake, about three miles in circumference, which extends, through an apparently spacious meadow, and beneath a chain of elevated sand-hills. It is inhabited by numerous kinds of fish, by alligators, and by a kind of turtles with soft shells. The latter are so large as to weigh from twenty to thirty, and even forty pounds each. They are extremely fat and delicious; but, if eaten to excess, are unwholesome. Numerous herds of deer, and extensive flocks of turkeys, frequent the vicinity of this place.