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Although
most of the Caribbean islands are of volcanic origin, crater lakes can
only be found in Dominica and Grenada. And as if to compensate, there
are three of them on the spice island: the brackish Levera Pond and Lake
Antoine in the north, and the Grand Etang in the center of the island.
It is in particular this 15 acre one that is full of mysteries.
"Each
year, the Fire Baptists make sacrifices to the goddess Orisha on the
shores of the lake", explains Wilan Hamilton, Education Officer of
the Forestry. "The legend has it that the mermaid-like goddess
seduces men to then drag them down into the depths of the water".
Others believe that those drowning in the Grand Etang reappear in
distant places: St. Vincent, Trinidad or even Venezuela.
"Nonsense
", says Hamilton, who doesn’t really know what to make of the
crater lake himself, though: "We don’t actually know where the
water comes from", he says. "A great deal more water flows out
of the lake than comes in through the only known inlet".
Researchers
have taken samples from the bottom of the lake and discovered that the
pollen and spores are up to 25,000 years old... |
