The Hollow Earth by F. T. Ives - HTML preview

 

APPENDIX.

To demonstrate the size of icebergs, fields of ice and glaciers.

Ocean depths, different estimates of.

The character of volcanic eruptions respecting material thrown out and final result of filling with water.

For evidences of how long heat will remain when covered after great fires, the same as in old times when people covered the backlog, and to show the reason for judging the interior to be molten when the heat is developed at insignificant depths by friction leading it to a further volcanic development, or else from an extinct volcano from long time past.

Artesian Waters, Caverns, Earthquakes, Gulf Streams, Lakes, Springs, Wells, Islands, etc.

This appendix is added showing cases something in harmony with the arguments here presented on all these subjects, to which could be added several times as many more.

While most of the points intended for a brief discussion in this book have been hit upon, a few words, with some newspaper clippings on mysterious things, are thought best to be added as a sort of appendix, and of such a character as to prove of benefit to some readers that see fit to avail themselves of a few hints to obtain water, for domestic or irrigating purposes, in an easy way, and where they would naturally least expect to find it.

At my old home, on the farm where I was born, our well, some thirty feet deep, nearly every season went dry. I have lugged hundreds of pails of water from neighbors’ wells and from a spring near the foot of the hill, one-third of a mile away, during my early life.

The hill is little over a half mile long, and less than one-fourth a mile wide from its furthest bases. It is shaped like a box turtle, rising 100 feet or more. There used to be a place near the top, on the east slope, that looked springy. The recent owner, a few years ago, dug into this wet spot, and at a few feet found living water, which is now piped to his house and barns in plenty.

Some years ago my cousin owned the adjoining farm on the north end of this hill, and employed a man to blast out several large iron rocks, scattered about on the surface of the hill. One of these rocks, nearly a rod square, lay almost exactly on the highest part of the hill. This big rock was full of large cracks, which, in my boyhood, I took a young visitor to see, explaining to him that these cracks, no doubt, occurred at the time of the crucifixion, of which pious information I was frequently reminded in later life. This rock was some eight feet deep in the ground. When the last blocks were hauled out the space partly filled with clear water, so cold that it was made available for drinking. Being in the dryest time of the year, the supply appeared to be permanent, which induced the laying of pipes one-third of a mile to barns for watering stock, which before had to be drawn mostly from the wells.

A man in the town of Durham—Henry Page—for years obtained water for his house and stock by a hydraulic ram; but, getting a new idea, took advantage of a knoll, shaped like an inverted bowl, an acre or two in extent, lying across a field some forty rods from his house. He dug into the top of this knoll some fifteen feet, striking plenty of water, which was easily piped all over his premises in abundant supply. West of his home rose the Besek Mountain, in a gradual rise for three-fourths of a mile, where it stopped in precipitous ledges, on the west side, nearly 200 feet high. I have hunted up to the top of these ledges. Near the top of the mountain is quite a section of swamp, and nearby descending is a spring that runs a short distance, falling over a shelving rock, and in two or three rods more is lost in the loose stones. It is there in the dryest seasons. Similar to this is a lake on Talcott Mountain, a short distance from Wadsworth Tower, and only a few rods from the abrupt ledges that overlook the towns of Simsbury and Farmington. Hundreds of such cases are in evidence all over the country, and it is quite sure that a large majority of those interested by reading this book will think of various similar cases that have been a query in their minds, “Why they were so.”

While a great number of peculiar features of this kind can be recorded, I will take time to relate a case or two farther from home.

My cousin, who took the Scripture lesson of the rock and its rendings, spent his last days in Southern California, where springs are rare, and orange groves and vineyards depend greatly upon irrigating for water. He was located at Duarte, about twenty miles east of the city of Los Angeles, in one of the finest orange and lemon groves in the State. While they had provisions for irrigating, the lack of drinking water was seriously felt.

Visiting at my house some twenty years ago, where he chiefly made his Eastern home, he listened to my cranky ideas as set forth in this work. At first he scoffed, but being a good reasoner, he afterward thought the idea worth trying, and promised on his return to experiment and report, as I had convinced him of several successes here. In less than a month I got word from him that “he had struck it.” The grove lay at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountain, not one-quarter of a mile away. I advised him to select some place in the side of the mountain where the tree growth was greenest, which he did, and got all the pure water needed.

A Mr. Fitzgerald, owning a large grove about a mile west, similarly located, took the hint and obtained quite a favorable result. When visiting these groves in 1894, almost the first thing Mr. Fitzgerald wanted to show me was his bountiful supply of spring water, tapped from the side of the mountain. These hints and cases are related as suggestions to any reader who may wish to better his water supply. Don’t go into the low ground for it, but tap the hills and high lands, where all the fountains of the earth are in abundance.

In Southern California three seasons out of four the plains and valley lands become too dry for pasturage of cattle and horses and bands of sheep, and a general hegira is made toward the mountains. While the Winter rains swell the streams running to the coast, filling their banks with rushing waters, by May and June a buggy can be hauled through every stream from San Francisco to San Diego without wetting the hubs of the wheels. The small streams are all dried up, and water for stock rare to find. As you go toward the mountains you meet the series of foothills like inverted bowls, the tops of which show growth of bulrushes and fleur de lis. At the foot of the hills will be found some of the drippings from the streams starting farther back. As these hills rise in groups, higher and higher toward the mountains, the green tops show more and more, and the streams increase in volume, affording good fishing for trout. Standing on the tops of these sugar loaf formations in the grazing season, one is reminded of Abraham’s herds of cattle on a thousand hills, to be seen as far as the eye can reach. In southern Minnesota is a long range of highlands thrown up, which they term a mountain chain, but scarcely anywhere is there an upheaval of rocks or any ledges. Over this range every Spring and Fall season will be seen thousands of flocks of ducks, brant, wild geese and sand hill cranes. The springs do not gush out in streams as from rocky formations, but ooze up into great mounds, frequently involving an acre or more, like a great conical sponge, up the side of which you can walk, the water gushing out under every footstep, giving an impression that you may sink in all the way to the top, where you will find an open spring several feet across, the water from which seems to be absorbed by this spongy mound of earth and vegetation, so that a stream rarely runs away. This ridge being the highest land in sight, where does this water come from? In a country surrounding which, it is necessary to carry water in kegs for the dogs to drink when hunting over it.

The conclusion of this work will be made up of a variety of clippings from newspapers for several years past, of which these are a small part. These clippings are published as seeming mysteries, but which, by the adoption of the theory promulgated of a hollow earth holding an ocean of fresh waters, seem easy of solution. If any other method can be suggested to answer these puzzling questions, it is to be hoped some genius will reveal it. If the assertions made in this book are true, polar expeditions are and will continue to be as futile as an attempt to signal the inhabitants of Mars, or to get up a correspondence with the man in the moon. Not presuming to exhaust this subject in so brief a treatise, the field is left open, and large enough for the thoughts and observations of men of greater ability to discuss than yours truly.

IMMENSE FIELDS OF ICE.
A STEAMER SURROUNDED AND COMPELLED TO WORK HER WAY OUT.

MONTREAL, May 22.—The steamer Fremona, from New Castle, which arrived here yesterday, had a very startling experience with the ice about 150 miles on the other side of Cape Ray. The vessel was steaming slowly through a dense fog on Wednesday last, when she got right in the midst of a pack of ice, which was drifting southward with the Arctic current. After the steamer had been pounding about in the ice for some hours the fog lifted and showed the vessel to be in a dangerous position. All around her were heavy hummocks of ice, ten feet deep in the water and showing about a foot above the surface. Gradually nearing the steamer and crushing the smaller pieces of ice in their way were a number of huge icebergs. The captain and chief officer climbed to the masthead and found that the ice extended on all sides as far as the eye could see. There were hundreds of seals on the ice, some of them being close to the vessel. Two hours were spent in turning the steamer, and she was then headed southward and was worked out of the ice. Owing to the movement of such a large mass of ice southward it is feared that navigation will be seriously interfered with.

News from the whalers in the Antarctic Seas on February 17 was that up to that time the whaling had proved a failure, with all the ships that made the venture. There were plenty of whales of the finner and humpback kind, but none of the Greenland kind. Grampuses were too plentiful. Seals were very numerous, and there were also plenty of sea lions. Some icebergs of enormous size were seen; one was fifty miles long and several were from fifteen to twenty.

In the Antarctic Ocean the icebergs that have been noticed from time to time rose 400, 580, 700 and even 1,000 feet above the water, and were from three to five miles long. Their enormous bulk may be inferred from the fact that the part under water is about seven times as large as that above.

PASSED A GREAT ICEBERG.

LONDON, Dec. 9.—The British steamship Galgate reports ice in the South Atlantic. On September 28, in latitude 49 degrees south, longitude 42 degrees west, the Galgate passed an iceberg two miles long and 250 feet high. Hundreds of other icebergs were also seen.

THREE HUNDRED MILES OF ICE.

ST. JOHN’S, N. F., Feb. 12.—The British steamer Dahome, which left Halifax on the 9th for this port and Liverpool, arrived here to-day. She reports coming through a field of ice three hundred miles long. This is something unprecedented at this season.

THE GREATEST OCEAN DEPTH.

The greatest known depth of the ocean is midway between the Island of Tristan d’Acunha and the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. The bottom was there reached at a depth of 40,236 feet, or eight and three-quarter miles, exceeding by more than 17,000 feet the height of Mount Everest, the loftiest mountain in the world. In the North Atlantic Ocean, south of Newfoundland, soundings have been made to a depth of 4,580 fathoms, or 37,480 feet, while depths equaling 34,000 feet, or six and a half miles, are reported south of the Bermuda Islands. The average depth of the Pacific Ocean between Japan and California is a little over 2,000 fathoms; between Chili and the Sandwich Islands, 2,500 fathoms; and between Chili and New Zealand, 1,500 fathoms. The average depth of all the oceans is from 2,000 to 2,500 fathoms.

Russian reports say that the Sea of Aral has been steadily rising since 1891. The sea level is now four feet above that of 1874. The line of railroad from Orenburg to Tashkend had to be changed in order to avoid being overflowed. Instead of sinking three inches a year, as German geographers had computed, the sea has been rising at the rate of four inches a year for the last ten years.

In 1812 it was La Souffrière, adjacent to the Morne Garou, which broke loose on the Island of St. Vincent, and it is the same Souffrière which now has devastated the island and is bombarding Kingston with rocks, lava and ashes.

The old crater of Morne Garou has long been extinct, and, like the old crater of Mont Pelee, near St. Pierre, it had far down in its depths, surrounded by sheer cliffs from 500 to 800 feet high, a lake.

Glimpses of the lake of Morne Garou were difficult to get, owing to the thick verdure growing about the dangerous edges of the precipices, but those who have seen it describe it as a beautiful sheet of deep blue water.

THE SUN’S TEMPERATURE.

F. R. (Minneapolis, Minn.): Has the temperature of the sun been established? And, if so, what is it?

The following figures are given by the principal scientists who studied the solar temperature: Newton, 1,669,000 degrees Alsius; Pouillet, 1,461; Zollner, 102,000; Secchi, 5,344,840; Ericson, 2,726,700; Fizeau, 7,500; Walerston, 9,000,000; Abney and Fessing, 12,700; Wilson and Gray, 8,700; Pernter, 30,000; Sporer, 27,000; Sainte-Claire Deville, 2,500; Soret, 5,801,846; Vicair, 1,398; Violle, 1,500; Rosetti, 20,000; Langley, 8,333,000; Ebert, 40,000; Guillaume and Christiansen, 6,000; Paschen, 5,000.

SAW TREMENDOUS ICEBERGS.
THEY ARE 300 FEET HIGH AND SEVEN AND EIGHT MILES LONG NEAR CAPE HORN.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 20.—French sailing vessels making port from around Cape Horn hold the record for sighting huge icebergs. The French bark Eugenie Fautrel, from Hamburg, reported that on September 14, near Cape Horn, a berg seven miles long and 300 feet high was seen several miles distant on the port bow. Now comes the French bark Anne De Bretagne, 164 days from Cardiff, and reports that she not only saw a berg 300 feet high and eight miles long, but she had to sheer off to keep from wrecking herself against it.

It was seen on September 3, and after passing through a great mass of ice, the Bretagne suddenly came within sight of the giant, harmless enough in appearance through the soft mist, but with terribly jagged comers, and a breadth of front that made the Frenchmen quail.

KINGSTOWN COVERED WITH ASHES.

It was seen then that the volcano was in constant eruption, and there was a tremendous roar. Forked lightning played incessantly over the disturbed section. The flashes averaged from sixty to one hundred a minute.

Kingstown, which is twelve miles from the volcano, was covered with three inches of ashes and showers of stones on Thursday. The bed of the old volcano was then a lake three miles across.

ERUPTION STARTED ON MONDAY.

The eruption was first observed on Monday. Huge flames of water shot up, and the people in that district fled. There has been a continuous roar ever since.

The northern district, from Chateau Belair to Georgetown, has been completely destroyed. It is impossible to proceed beyond that point, on account of the rivers of lava. A huge hill was observed where previously there had been a valley. The whole of that part of the island is smoking.

SIXTY KILLED BY LIGHTNING.

Sixty persons are reported to have been killed by lightning while getting away.

On Tuesday and Wednesday the island was showered with ashes. Near Belair the ashes were three feet deep.

On Thursday there was a continuous shower of hot sand and water. Everything on the island was ruined by the ashes.

SOME PERSONS DYING OF THIRST.

Many persons were brought in boats from Kingstown. Some of the refugees who arrived on the coast were dying of thirst.

THE NEW JACKSONVILLE.
A FRESH CITY BUILT BEFORE THE RUINS OF THE OLD HAVE CEASED TO SMOULDER.

Before the fire that destroyed a great part of the city of Jacksonville, Fla., had ceased to burn, the city has practically been rebuilt. This statement not only describes a building operation remarkable for rapid execution, but also covers an incident unique in the experience of firemen.

Jacksonville was almost wiped out by fire on May 3 of last year. An area of 443 acres, comprising 148 blocks, was swept by the flames, and property worth at least $15,000,000 was destroyed.

The work of rebuilding on a better and more substantial scale was started within a week and has since gone on with rapidity unprecedented in Southern building operations, and now the city is in far better shape than it was before the fire.

About three weeks ago the clearing up of the last of the ruins was begun. The laborers doing the work removed three or four inches of the mass of brick and stones on top, and then found, to their surprise, that underneath the ruins were still hot.

Smoke began to rise out of the hole they had dug out, and the farther down they went the hotter became the ruins, and the thicker the smoke. At last a mass of red hot coals was found, which sprang into flame when the air reached it.

It had been necessary several times within the year for the fire department to soak this part of the ruins with water, but it had been thought for several months that the fire must be out at last.

Alongside new Jacksonville had already sprung into existence. Six months after the destruction of the city a new one already covered the greater part of the site.

Within eleven months more than 2,000 buildings were erected, fifty of them aggregating in cost $2,000,000. And the new Jacksonville is immeasurably superior to the old.

A PRAIRIE CAVERN.
AN INTERESTING HOLE IN THE GROUND WHERE CAVES WOULD NOT BE LOOKED FOR.

From the Oklahoma State Capital.

SULPHUR SPRINGS, I. T., Oct. 18.—At a spot eleven miles southeast of this place, in the level prairie upland, is an opening about forty feet in diameter and sixty feet in depth. By clinging to its rocky and precipitous walls, a person may descend to the bottom, and there find the openings to the two caves, one leading westward, and the other two to the east. For years this place has been known as Rock Prairie Cave. It is one of the most striking natural curiosities in the Chickasaw nation. The caves are of unknown length, and through one rushes a subterranean stream of great depth in places and of icy coldness. Exploring parties have ventured into these labyrinths for hundreds of yards, but the danger of becoming lost has prevented a thorough examination of the underground passages.

The cave leading westward is easiest of access and contains a number of spacious chambers. The room is about seventy feet square and fifty feet from the floor to the ceiling. The floor is obstructed with huge boulders. The darkness and stillness are intense. Picnic parties sometimes go there, and, with a huge boulder for a table, eat their lunch in the glare of torches that cast uncanny shadows along the massive walls.

Timid persons hesitate in venturing into the depths of the eastern cave. The passage slants downward at an angle that compels the explorer to crawl and slip and slide for nearly 100 feet before reaching a spot where a person may stand upright and walk safely. From the darkness echoes the sound of rushing water, which later is found to be a stream that runs from eight to thirty feet in width, and from six inches to many feet in depth. Men have waded in the stream until the water reached their chins, and then gone in a boat to points where they were unable to touch bottom with the longest oars. A farmer carried his boat into the cave several years ago to follow the stream to its end. At a depth estimated to be 200 feet below the surface of the ground is a natural bridge, formed by a huge stone that fell across the stream. The water plunges underneath this bridge like a millrace. A boat can be pulled over the bridge, however, and launched on the other side. About 100 feet below the bridge the stream widens into a broad, deep pool, with a high, vaulted roof. Beautiful stalagmites and stalactites adorn this chamber. Two hundred feet below this pool the passage is difficult. It is claimed that this cave has been explored for a mile.

The stream is believed to find its outlet at a spring about three miles from the entrance to the caves. This spring is of great size and volume, and flows with remarkable swiftness. In rainy seasons the spring boils and gushes as if choked with the flood of water that pours from its mouth. The stream in Black Prairie cave rises when there is a heavy rainfall in the surrounding country, and the increased flow of both springs and stream at such times is taken as evidence that they are connected.

ARTESIAN WATERS IN TEXAS.

In the south central part of Texas is an upland covering an area of 14,000 square miles, and known as the Edwards Plateau. At the southeastern foot of this elevated tract there is no end of gushing springs, which form the headwaters of the San Antonio and San Marcos rivers. In a big State like Texas, the rainfall of one locality often varies a good deal from that of adjacent regions. But, according to a bulletin of the United States Geological Survey, the fluctuations of discharge of the streams just mentioned correspond closely to the rainfall up on the plateau, from which it is inferred that some invisible connection exists between the springs and the upland. The bulletin declares that this similarity has been found to hold true for dry and wet years alike. The Edwards Plateau is a flat, grass covered upland. The rain which falls upon it does not flow off in surface streams, but sinks into the porous soil, and eventually finds its way underground to the bold scarp line of the region, where it bursts out in abundant springs.

The San Antonio River has its source in one of these artesian springs, and between it and the wells driven to supply water to the city of San Antonio there seems to be close connection, shown in their mutual changes, which indicates that their waters have a common source. It was recently noticed that when the wells were steadily drawn upon for twenty-four hours the water level of the head lake of the river fell several inches, but that on shutting off the wells the lake regained its level in about one day. So intimate is the relation between the flow of the wells and that of the river that it is always possible to tell how high the water will rise in the former by observing the river’s height on a gauge rod placed upon its bank.

THE GREAT ASSAM EARTHQUAKE.

A thorough report of the earthquake in Assam, in 1897, the most violent and extended earthquake of historic times, has been made by Mr. R. D. Oldham. From an abstract by Prof. Davis of Harvard University, it appears that an area of 150,000 square miles was laid in ruins, all means of communication interrupted, the hills rent asunder and cast down in the landslips, the plains fissured and riddled with vents from which sand and water poured forth in astounding quantities, causing floods in the rivers, etc. A surrounding area of 1,750,000 square miles felt a shock of unusual energy. The earthquake wave traveled at the rate of 120 miles a minute. The vertical displacement of the ground near the center of disturbance was probably as much as fourteen inches—an unprecedented quantity; the vertical movement of earthquakes of great violence, like the Charleston earthquake, is seldom more than two inches.

Some of the results of this great earthquake of June 12, 1897, are astonishing. Faults were produced, one having a throw of 25 feet and a length of 12 miles; another a throw of 10 feet and a length of 2½ miles. The larger of the two dammed a river so as to form a lake several miles in extent and ruining a forest of at least 50,000 trees. Landslides of great magnitude were produced in the Himalayas and the valleys of streams were changed beyond recognition.

CURIOUS RESULT OF THE EARTHQUAKE.

INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 1.—An interesting point in connection with the earthquake which was felt in this city yesterday is the fact that a number of small Indiana streams having their source in the southern border of the gas belt have suddenly filled with water. No rains have occurred in this State for months to swell the streams, and in the case of Honey Creek, in the eastern part of Bartholemew County, it had gone dry several weeks ago, the water standing only in pools here and there. This week it is filled to the brim, and in some places has overflowed. Sugar Creek, that runs near Edinburg, Johnson County, was nearly dry, but to-day it is reported to be nearly filled. Smaller streams rising in the Hancock County gas territory have shown similar phenomena. No one can imagine where the water comes from. In the case of Honey Creek the records show that previous to the Charleston earthquake, August 31, 1886, the stream acted in the same way.

A VILLAGE DESTROYED BY AN EARTHQUAKE.

CONSTANTINOPLE, May 27.—The village of Repahie in Armenia has been destroyed by an earthquake. A number of mineral springs spouted from the crevasses made in the earth by the shocks and the flow of water was so great that the adjacent fields were flooded. The earthquake was preceded by rumblings which caused the inhabitants to flee from the village and they thus escaped death from the falling houses. No lives were lost however.

Since a recent earthquake at Santa Ana, in Orange County, Cal., the well of Mr. Huntington in Los Bolsas district, which for years has never flowed to any considerable extent, has given forth large quantities of mud, stones and other materials, the eruptions being volcanic in character. The supply of water is now far in excess of the means provided at the surface for its care, and it has been found necessary to ditch from the well to the river to carry it away. The pipes are at all times in danger of bursting—the sudden blasts of air and foreign substances rendering it more or less dangerous to go near the opening.

FIRE BANKED FOR YEARS.

From the Galveston Daily News.

ORANGE, Tex., Feb. 21.—J. W. Link is filling in some low lots with ashes and charcoal that he is hauling from the pit where A. Gilmer at one time burned the slabs and refuse that came from his sawmill. The mill was destroyed by fire Sept. 13, 1899. When the wagons commenced hauling the mound of ashes was 20 feet high and nearly 40 feet in diameter at the bottom, tapering as it went up.

To-day when the men had worked in about 15 feet, but before they had reached the center of the heap, the teamsters discovered smoke issuing from the charcoal as it was being brought in contact with the air. One of them felt of his shovel and was startled to find it very hot. He picked up a piece of charcoal and blew it with his breath, when it developed into a blaze of fire. The experiment was repeated several times to-day and each time the charred lump would become a live coal. The ashes were about 16 feet thick that stood above the live coals, and from the outer edge to where the hot ashes were first discovered, a little above the ground the fine ashes were fully as thick.

No smoke has been seen to come from the big ash pile for nearly two and a half years, and these coals have been in their present resting place probably for a longer period, as the cone-shaped mound was much larger when the mill was destroyed than it was at the time the wagons commenced removing the ashes.

The Volcano of Kilauea is very active at present. The cavity produced by the last breakdown has not filled up, but there is an active lake 200 to 300 feet below the general level of the floor and a quarter of a mile in diameter.

A WHOLE VALLEY LAID IN WASTE.
FIFTEEN CRATERS DESTROY WHAT WAS ONCE A DELIGHTFUL SPOT.

LUNAHUANA, United States of Colombia, March 30, 1891.—This beautiful valley has experienced a topographical change, and I may now call a desert that which was formerly a delightful spot. Fifteen craters have been constantly at work since Sunday, March 22, throwing out masses of mud and water which on its precipitate descent and with the great strength of the current, is carrying ruin in all directions and sweeping houses before it, together with their inhabitants and the cattle, vineyards, farms and irrigation works.

All the roads north and south of here have been converted into ditches, through which the water is continually pouring, and all communication between Canete and Chincha is interrupted, while the bridge across the river has been swept away.

The numerous victims who have suffered, the deep impression caused by the destruction of all the irrigation ditches, the fact that it will be impossible to gather the remainder of the crop of grapes, and the certainty that the necessities of life will reach famine prices, lead me to suggest that the government should take steps on behalf of the residents here. Hundreds of families have been left without homes and are camping out on the hillsides, the only clothes they have being those in which they escaped. They are preparing to cross the ravines, as the floods may sweep down upon them at any moment.

An interesting geological phenomenon is noticed in the district of Izium, in Kharkoy, Russia. In consequence of the heat this summer the ground broke open in many places and deep ditches formed, at the bottom of which subterranean water appeared. Geologists who examined the ground think that the subterranean water comes from the same source which supplies the Slavinskoye salt lakes of the neighborhood.

A HIVE OF VOLCANOES.
OVER THREE THOUSAND ACTIVE VOLCANOES IN LOWER CALIFORNIA.

SAN DIEGO, Cal., July 25.—The San Diegan to-day publishes a descriptive account by Colonel I. K. Allen, the well-known engineer, of a phenomena in what is known as the volcano region of the Cocapah Mountains, situated sixty-five miles southwest of Yuma in Lower California. Colonel Allen says there are over three thousand active volcanoes there, one-half of which are small cones, ten or twelve feet at the base, the remaining half five to forty feet at the base, and fifteen to twenty-five in height. The whole volcanic region is encrusted with sulphur. One peculiar feature of the region is a lake of water jet black, which is a quarter of a mile in length and an eighth of a mile in width, seemingly bottomless. The water is hot and salty.

A TUNNEL A LIME KILN.
THE SANTA FE MAY HAVE TO ABANDON ITS JOHNSON CANYON ROUTE.

LOS ANGELES, Cal., Jan. 31.—The Fairview tunnel through the mountains at Johnson’s canyon, near Williams, Ariz., is again on fire and the officials of the Santa Fe Pacific fear that they may be compelled to abandon the tunnel, as they are at a loss to devise means to extinguish the flames. Investigation shows conclusively that the new fire was caused by spontaneous combustion. The tunnel is now nothing but the flue for an immense lime kiln. The mountain through which the tunnel passes is chiefly limestone of a high degree of purity.

VOLCANIC OUTBURST PROBABLE.

SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., July 1.—News from Susanville, in the Sierra Nevadas, says that slight earthquake shocks continue and that the people have been so accustomed to the constant trembling of the earth that they pay no attention to it. The shocks, however, have revived recollections of old settlers who predict volcanic disturbances in the extinct craters, such as there were in 1850.

Susanville lies in a highly mountainous walled valley directly east of Lassen Butte, an extinct volcano 10,000 feet high. From its summit no less than forty extinct craters can be seen. Cinder Cone, which rises 600 feet above the level of the plateau, was in eruption in 1850. Two prospectors examined it and found Lake Saltafara, miles south of Cinder Cone, a center of volcanic forces. The lake was a mass of boiling water and mud and from it vast columns of flames shot up at intervals. The timber in the vicinity was on fire. Within the last few years there has seemed renewed activity in the internal fires and the present shocks point to the possibility of another great volcanic outburst which will find vent through some of the old craters.

DESOLATED BY ERUPTIONS.
FIFTEEN NEW CRATERS DESTROY MANY HOMES AND RUIN A WIDE AREA IN CHILI.

PANAMA, April 26.—Regarding the eruptions in the Lunahuana district of Chili, the Lima Opinion National has published the following letter dated March 30:

“This beautiful valley has experienced a topographical change, and I may now call a desert that which was formerly a delightful spot. Fifteen craters have been continually at work since Sunday, the 22d, throwing out masses of mud, which, in its precipitate descent and with the monstrous strength of the current, is carrying ruin in all directions and sweeping houses before it, together with their inhabitants and the cattle, vineyards, farms, and irrigation works. All the roads north and south of here have been converted into ditches, through which water is continually pouring, and all communication between Canete and Chincha is interrupted, while the bridge across the river has been swept away. Hundreds of families have been left without homes and are camping out on the hillsides, the only clothes they have being those in which they escaped. They are preparing to cross the ravines, as the floods may sweep down upon them at any moment.”

GLACIER ICE.

Glacier ice is not like the solid blue ice on the surface of the water, but consists of granules joined together by an intricate network of capillary water, filled fissures. In exposed sections and upon the surface of the ice can be observed “veined” or “banded” structure veins of a denser blue color alternating with those of a lighter shade containing air bubbles. The cause of this peculiar structure has been the subject of much theorizing among investigators, but hitherto the greatest authorities consider that the explanation of the phenomenon is yet wanting.—Goldthwaite’s Geographical Magazine.

THE LONGEST GLACIER IN THE TEMPERATE ZONE ASCENDED BY MR. CONWAY.

Mr. W. M. Conway, who was sent out by the Royal Geographical Society of London last spring to explore the Kara Koram Mountains and their mighty glaciers north of Cashmere, has accomplished the most brilliant feats of mountain and glacier climbing that any explorer has achieved in years. He has sent to the society a report of his ascent of the Baltoro glacier, over forty miles in length and the longest glacier that is known in temperate regions, and of his ascent of an ice-covered mountain over 23,000 feet high at the upper end of the glacier.

He began the ascent of the Baltoro glacier on Aug. 5. He had little idea on starting of the discomforts before him. His party included three Englishmen besides himself, an Alpine guide, and four Sepoys detailed from an Indian regiment. Fully two-thirds of the entire length of the glacier was so completely covered with stone debris that the ice was not visible except where lakes or crevasses occurred. He was unable to ascend along the banks at the sides of the glacier, for they were not traversable. He was therefore forced to go up the horrible middle of the ice. The surface was not flat, but was a series of prodigious mounds. He measured one of them, which was over 200 feet high, and it was usually easier to climb over these mounds than to circumvent them. The stones that rested upon the ice were constantly giving way under foot. The consequence was that the progress of the heavily laden Sepoys was slow and the marches had to be short.

The party was nearly two weeks ascending this icy river, four days of which time they remained in camp on account of stormy weather. When they finally turned up a tributary glacier in order to ascend the mountain, they had reached a height of 16,000 feet above the sea. All through the journey the cold was very severe. The party was very heavily laden because in addition to their food supplies it was necessary to carry a quantity of fuel.

It was not until Aug. 25, twenty days after they had left the foot of the glacier, that they began the assaults upon the icy peak which they intended to surmount. Two or three of the party had become disabled by cold and fatigue, and had to return to a camp established on the glacier. The party complained of some discomforts which travelers among the Himalayas have often mentioned. The sun, day after day came out with scorching power, and while their feet were numbed with cold, their bodies were far too hot to be comfortable. Mr. Conway says the great variations between biting cold and grilling heat are the chief impediments to mountaineering at high altitudes in those regions. Not only the cold and the heat alike are hard to endure, but the change from one to the other seems to weaken the forces and render the whole body feeble.

Ascending the steep slope of the final peak, their climbing irons were of the greatest assistance. They found to their dismay after climbing a few hundred feet that the upper part of the peak was not of snow, but of hard, blue ice, covered with a thin layer of snow. Every step they took had to be cut through the snow into the ice. The ice was too hard for the steel points of the climbing irons to penetrate until it had been prepared by a stroke or two of the ax. The Alpine guide said the work of step cutting was far more fatiguing than he had ever experienced in Switzerland. One of the Sepoys was overtaken by mountain sickness and had to be left behind. Now and then a puff of air inspired the party with a little life. Most of the time they suffered from the rarefication of the air.

Reaching the top, about 23,000 feet above the sea, Conway named the mountain Pioneer Point. He saw the most glorious views on every side. The whole panorama of valley, mountain, glacier, and snow has an effect, at an elevation, of majestic repose. The observers were far above the noises of avalanches and rivers and nature’s forces were reduced to mere insignificance as they gazed thousands of feet below them upon the scenery. Many of the mountains they saw had not before been seen by human eye.

ANOTHER GULF STREAM FROM SAME SOURCE.

In many respects the North Pacific ocean resembles the North Atlantic. A great warm current, much like the Gulf Stream, and of equal magnitude, called the Black Stream, or Japan current, runs northward along the eastern shore of Asia. Close to the east coast of Japan it flows through a marine valley which holds the deepest water in the world. It was sounded at a depth of 5¼ miles by the United States steamer Tuscaroa in 1875, while surveying for a projected cable route between the United States and Japan. The heavy sounding weight took more than an hour to sink to the bottom. But trial was made of a chasm yet more profound, where the lead did not fetch it up at all. It is the only depth of ocean that remains unfathomed.—San Francisco Examiner.

At the head of Onion Valley, in Inyo County, Cal., are two abrupt mountains, one 13,000 and the other 14,000 feet high. Tumbling down the side of one is a cataract 500 feet high, which in the distance resembles falling snow, and two other waterfalls of equal height are visible from the head of the valley.

THE LAKE ON THE MOUNTAIN.
MR. DRUMMOND THINKS HE HAS FOUND WHERE ITS WATERS COME FROM.

On the north side of Lake Ontario, southwest of the Canadian city of Kingston, is a lake situated on a height of land one side of which forms a cliff. It is just south of the arm of Lake Ontario known as Quinte Bay and it stands 180 feet above the bay. There is no opportunity for surface waters to flow into this little lake and no one has the slightest idea whence it derives its waters, which are clear and fresh. The lake is about one and a half miles long with a width of about three-quarters of a mile.

Mr. A. T. Drummond recently wrote a letter to Nature, in which he said he believed he had solved the mystery of the invisible inflow, which cannot possibly be attributed to springs from any higher ground in the neighborhood. In his opinion the source of the lake is to be found in the Trenton limestone area some twenty-five or thirty miles to the northeast. There is a steady rise in these rocks to the north and their dip is favorable to sending the water that sinks through the soil to them southward to the region of Lake Ontario. Fifty miles away the rocks have a height of 400 feet above the lake.

In order to ascertain the bearing of these rocks upon the origin of the inflow, Mr. Drummond last summer made a series of soundings in the little lake. The largest part of the lake is shallow, but along its southern edge he found a great rent in the bottom nearly a mile long and a third of a mile wide. In this rent the depths varied from seventy-five to 100 feet. He says the rent is probably due to a wide fault or breakage in the Trenton limestone, and he believes that the same forces that gave rise to this fault may account for a subterranean connection with the higher ground many miles to the north through which the water finds its way into the little lake that overlooks Ontario. Mr. Drummond’s theory is the most plausible that has yet been suggested to account for the source from which this mysterious lake receives its waters.

A BOILING LAKE.

There is a lake of boiling water in the Island of Dominica, lying in the mountains behind Roseau, and in the valleys surrounding it are many solfataras, or volcanic sulphur vents. In fact, the boiling lake is little better than a crater filled with scalding water, constantly fed by mountain streams, and through which the pent-up gases find vent and are ejected. The temperature of the water on the margins of the lake ranges from 180° to 190° Fahrenheit; in the middle, exactly over the gas vents, it is believed to be about 300°. Where this active action takes place the water is said to rise two, three, or even four feet above the general surface level of the lake, the cone often dividing so that the orifices through which the gas escapes are legion in number. This violent disturbance over the gas jets causes a violent action over the whole surface of the lake, and, though the cones appear to be special vents, the sulphurous vapors rise with equal density over its entire surface. Contrary to what one would naturally suppose, there seems to be in no case violent action of the escaping gases, such as explosions or detonations. The water is of dark gray color, and having been boiled over and over for thousands of years, has become thick and slimy with sulphur. As the inlets to the lake are rapidly closing, it is believed that it will soon assume the character of a geyser or sulphurous crater.—St. Louis Republic.

AN UNCANNY LAKE.

There is in Missouri a lake, perched on the top of a mountain, its surface from 50 to 100 feet below the level of the earth surrounding it, fed by no surface streams, untouched by the wind, dead as the sea of Sodom. There is no point of equal altitude from which water could flow within hundreds of miles, and yet it has a periodical rise of 30 feet or over, which is in no way affected by the atmospheric conditions in the country adjacent. It may rain for weeks in Webster County, and the return of fair weather will find Devil’s Lake at its lowest point, while it may reach its highest point during a protracted drouth.—St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

CURIOUS LAKE IN THE WEST INDIES.

CHICAGO, Oct. 14.—Editor of the Herald:—In your very interesting “Missing Links” of to-day you mention the great sunken lake in the Cascade Mountains as the most deeply sunken lake in the world. This reminded me of a lake similar to this which I visited while traveling in the West Indies in 1891. This lake is situated in the island of St. Vincent on the highest peak of the Souffrière range of mountains, 4,500 feet above the level of the sea.

It is one mile and a half down to the surface of the water and like the Cascade Lake the depth of the water is unknown.

Soundings were taken many years ago by Lieutenant Smith, of the United States navy, but with no result. The lake is almost a complete circle and is about three or four miles in circumference.

The color of the water is light olive, but there are times when it changes to an intense yellow and is saturated with sulphur. It was in the latter state that I saw it in 1891, and so thick was the sulphur that two of our party who ventured to bathe came out with a thin coating of sulphur on many parts of their body and emitting so strong an odor that we were forced to quarantine them for some hours.

ED FITZGERALD.

LOFTY LAKES OF THE WORLD.

The most loftily situated lakes are found among the Himalaya Mountains in Thibet. Their altitudes do not, however, seem to have been accurately gauged, for different authorities give widely different figures regarding them. According to some, Lake Manasurovara, one of the sacred lakes of Thibet, is between 19,000 and 20,000 feet above the level of the sea, and if this is so it is undoubtedly the loftiest lake in the world. Two other Thibetan lakes, those of Cholamoo and Surakol, are stated to be 17,000 and 15,400 feet in altitude respectively. For a long time it was supposed that Lake Titicaca, in South America, was the loftiest in the world. It covers about 4,500 square miles, and is 924 feet above the sea. In spite of inexactitude with regard to the measurements of the elevation of the Thibetan lakes, they are, no doubt, considerably higher than this and any others.—New York Telegram.

THE WATER STILL RISES.
QUEER PRANKS OF A LAKE AS AN EFFECT OF AN EARTHQUAKE SHOCK.

NEW YORK, September 18.—To-day’s Herald has these cable dispatches:

“SAN SALVADOR, VIA GALVESTON, TEX., September 12, 1891.—The waters in Llapango Cojutepeque, or Illabasco Lake, as it is variously known, keep on rising. The workmen sent by the government to open an outlet to the ocean are still hard at work.

“The shocks continue to be felt at irregular intervals. The earthquake of September 8 was experienced all over the country. The material losses are estimated at $500,000, although this seems a low figure.

“News was received here this morning from Guatemala City that ex-vice-President Dr. Rafeel Aola had been accidentally shot and killed while attempting to separate two of his friends who were engaged in a quarrel.”

In the extreme eastern edge of Arizona there is a great shallow salt lake in a bowl-like depression, the sink itself being some hundreds of feet deep and three miles across. The basin, all the portion of it not taken up by the lake, is dazzling white with millions upon millions of salt crystals. In the center of the lake rises what appears to be a cone-shaped volcanic peak. Should you take the trouble to ford the lake you will find a miniature lake in the middle of the peak clear as crystal.

THE DEEPEST LAKE KNOWN.

By far the deepest lake in the world is Lake Baikal, in Siberia, which is in every way comparable to the great Canadian lakes as regards size; for, while its area of over 9,000 square miles makes it about equal to Lake Erie in superficial extent, its enormous depth of between 4,000 and 4,500 feet makes the volume of its waters almost equal to that of Lake Superior. Although its surface is 1,350 feet above the sea level, its bottom is nearly 3,000 feet below it. The Caspian Lake, or Sea, as it is usually called, has a depth in its southern basin of over 3,000 feet. Lake Maggiore is 2,800 feet deep, Lake Como nearly 2,000 feet, and Lagodi-Garda, another Italian lake, has a depth in certain places of 1,900 feet. Lake Constance is over 1,000 feet deep, and Huron and Michigan reach depths of 900 and 1,000 feet.

Blowout Mountains in the cascades above Breitenbush, Ore., is unmistakably one of the wonders of the cascades, consisting of about eight hundred acres of granite rock piled up in every conceivable shape. From all indications it has been caused by an accumulation of gas below, which bursting out threw the rock into the cañon, forming a beautiful lake from twenty to thirty rods wide and half a mile long, in which abound myriads of trout.

A peculiar fish, of brown color, without scales, and weighing twenty-one pounds, was caught in a net at New Dorp, Staten Island, this week, by the lighthouse keeper. In forty years’ fishing the keeper has never seen a similar fish.

A MAMMOTH SPRING.

The largest and most wonderful spring of fresh water in the world is on the gulf coast of Florida in Hernando County. The Wekowechee River, a stream large enough to float a small steamer, is made entirely of water spouted from this gigantic natural well, which is 60 feet in diameter and about 70 or 80 feet deep. Chemists who have analyzed the water say that there is not a trace of organic matter in its composition, and that it is the most pure and fresh of any spring in America. A dime tossed into the spring can be seen lying on the bottom as plainly as it could in a glass of common well water. The steamer which makes regular excursion trips up and down the Wekowechee is often floated into the cavity of the spring, but cannot be made to stay in the center, as the force of the rising water forces it to the sides of the basin. The spring and 2,000 acres of land adjoining belong to two Chicago capitalists, who are making it a pleasure resort.

THE WORLD’S LARGEST SPRING.

At Mammoth Spring, Ark., and under the shadow of the Ozark Mountains, is the largest spring in the world. The water comes up in such a body that it forms a lake about the orifice. The output of the spring is 29,600,000 gallons daily. Records have been kept of it for ten years, and during that time the output has not varied 100 gallons a day nor the temperature a single degree. Winter and summer the spring remains at 59 degrees. The spring is evidently the outlet of some underground river.

The Poncho springs in Colorado are all on the side of a mountain, and hot and cold water flows from the ground in places not more than three inches apart.

FRESH WATER FROM A SALT BAY.

From the Florida Times-Union and Citizen.

BELLEAIR, March 3.—The Eldridge spring is quite an attraction to the visitors; it furnishes drink water for the hotel. It is out in the bay, but is cemented up, so as to keep out the salt water, and throws up 100,000 gallons of water per day.

A species of eyeless fish has been found in a subterranean boiling spring discovered in a Nevada mine.

The motion of the earth around the sun is 68,305 miles an hour; over 1,000 miles a minute, or nineteen miles a second.

A STRANGE POND.

Hicks Pond, in Palmyra, Me., is a strange body of water. It is only twelve acres in area, but it is more than 100 feet in depth. It has no visible inlet, although a fair sized stream flows from it into Lake Sebasticook. The volume of its waters is not materially affected by either drouth or freshet, and the water is always cold.—Philadelphia Ledger.

WONDERS BENEATH THE SURFACE.

Workmen engaged in sinking an artesian well in Sandy Valley, near Niria, N. M., struck an open seam, from which a cold stream of air rushed with force enough to remove a 12-pound rock laid over the opening. The air was charged with millions of small yellow bugs, each having but two legs, no wings and a small red circle on his back. They lived but a few seconds after striking the warm outside air. Local scientists are puzzling over the question: How did they get so far down into the earth?—St. Louis Republic.

FISH IN AN OLD WELL.

Some queer fish were taken out of the recently reopened well on the United States fish station at San Marcos, Texas, says the Louisville Courier-Journal. There were several salamanders, varying in length from an inch and a half to four and a half inches. These creatures live on land or water, have human-looking faces, hands and feet, bulldog head, tail of an eel and body of fish. There were also large numbers of shrimps, resembling sea shrimps, only much smaller. It is an artesian well, and everybody wants to know where the creatures come from.

A wonderful artesian well is in flourishing activity at Huron, N. D. It throws a stream 100 feet high, and the flow is estimated at from 8,000 to 10,000 gallons a minute.

ST. WINIFRED’S WELL.

One of the most copious springs in Great Britain is the famed St. Winifred’s well, near the town of Holywell, in Flintshire. The well is an oblong square, about twelve feet by seven, and its water, say the people of the district, has never been known to freeze. This latter assertion may be true, as besides containing a fair percentage of mineral matter that lowers its freezing point, the well is inside a beautiful chapel, which was erected over it by Queen Margaret, the mother of Henry VII. The water thrown up is not less than eighty-four hogsheads every minute, and the quantity appears to vary very little either in drouth or after the heaviest rain, showing doubtless that its primitive sources are numerous and widely distributed. Sir Winifred’s has been the object of many pilgrimages.

MONTEZUMA’S WELL.

One of the most pleasing natural curiosities in the Territory of Arizona is the pool of water known as Montezuma’s well. It is situated fifteen miles northeast of the old abandoned military post known as Cape Verde. It is 25 feet in diameter, and the clear, pure water is about sixty feet below the surface of the surrounding country. Some years ago certain military officers sounded the pool and found that it had a uniform depth of eighty feet of water, except in one place, apparently about six feet square, where the sounding line went down about 500 feet without touching bottom.

The well empties into Beaver Creek, only about 100 yards distant, the water gushing forth from the rocks as though it were under great pressure. The well is undoubtedly supplied from subterranean sources, possibly through the hole sounded by the army officers years ago. The sides of the well are honeycombed with caves and tunnels, permitting sightseers to descend to the water’s edge.

Montezuma’s well contains no fish. The flow of water from it is the same throughout the season. Popular opinion has attributed the origin of the well to volcanic action, but as the rock surrounding it is limestone, it is more than probable that the action of the water is responsible for its creation.—Native American.

A REMARKABLE ISLAND.

From the Pittsburg Dispatch.

A rim of land inclosing a fresh-water lake in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is a novelty in the way of islands. There may not be more than one such in the great ocean, and, at any rate, that type of island is extremely rare. This strange spot is Niuafou, which is quite apart from other ocean islands. It lies midway between the Fiji and Samoa groups, and is under the government of the Tonga group, though it is 200 miles from these islands.

It has recently been visited by Lieutenant Somerville, of the British Navy. Some time or other a volcanic vent opened at the bottom of the ocean, and the lava that poured out of it piled up higher and higher, until it finally overtopped the sea. A great volcanic mountain had been formed, and the part of it that came into view above the waste of waters was, of course, an island. As time went on this volcano was the scene of one of those tremendous explosions that sometimes tear mountains to pieces. It was such a cataclysm that blew off the upper 3,000 feet of Krakatoa some years ago.

The explosion at Niuafou had a remarkable result. The interior of the crater was blown out to a considerable depth, leaving only the narrow rim, in this case a nearly perfect ring, around the deep central cavity. Such is the island of to-day.

A thousand Tongans live in the five villages that lie along the outer slope of that crater wall. The drainage from the inner slope has partly filled the cavity, forming a lake whose waters, though slightly alkaline, are drinkable. From the top of the crater rim one looks down upon the peaceful lake within, with its three little islands and the curiously shaped peninsula jutting out into it; and outside the rim is the ever-restless ocean.

WHERE THE VALLEY WAS A HILL IS.

From the Chicago Record.

SEATTLE, Wash., April 6.—A tremendous upheaval, accompanied by wonderful changes, occurred in the Mount Baker district March 27. What had once been a valley and the bed of a river is now a hill seventy feet high. The noise of the upheaval was heard at Hamilton, ten miles away. A report of the occurrence was brought to the city by D. P. Simons, Jr.

Simons says the noise of the upheaval sounded like heavy thunder. He and his party, who were examining timber lands, journeyed in the direction from which the sound came, and were astonished to see a huge mound of earth, nearly a quarter of a mile square, where formerly there had been a valley. In places the mound was seventy feet high. The Nooksachk River had been turned from its course, and ran around one side of a hill. Nearly in the center of this high bank of earth was a large lake. A forest had formerly occupied the ground, and trees which had escaped destruction rose above the water. There were cracks here and there in the mound large enough to ingulf a horse and wagon. There was a smell of sulphur in the air, and it is Mr. Simons’s impression that the disturbance was caused by gases underneath the mountain.

William Hadley, a trapper, whose wrecked cabin now stands in the center of the huge mound, was absent at the time of the upheaval, and thus escaped death. His cabin was split in two.

REMARKABLE GEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY.

According to a Florida paper a remarkable geological discovery has been made there. The Galena Advocate says: “As P. M. Oliver, in company with a lot of friends, was chasing a fox through his field near Payne’s prairie Saturday night last his horse ran into a sink and in getting the animal out Sunday morning attention was attracted to the numerous curious petrological formations on the sides of the sink. Further examination Monday disclosed immense beds of the petrified bones of the now extinct dinotherium giganteum, icthyosaurus, glyptodon, cuvieri, plesiosaurus, and peterodactyl. This is probably the richest find in the world and was altogether accidental.”

TUNNELLING FOR WATER.
FOLKS OUT IN IDAHO WHO RUN THEIR WELLS INTO A SIDE HILL.

The citizens of Sweet, Canyon County, Idaho, have a novel way of obtaining water for domestic and irrigation purposes. The water is dug out of the hillside, with wells run like tunnels, and not down into the earth as ordinary wells are dug. East of the town, there is a bluff out of which sparkling mountain water can be procured almost anywhere by merely running a tunnel in from twenty to forty feet.

At one point in town, a stream sufficient to irrigate a fine orchard and garden, besides an ample supply for domestic use and for watering all the teams that pass that way, comes pouring out of the 40-foot tunnel. Neither the spring freshets nor the summer drouths affect its flow.

DOMINICA’S BOILING LAKE.
A NATURAL CURIOSITY THAT WAS NOT DISCOVERED TILL 1875.

Mr. Sterns-Fadelle of Dominica has just published a little book giving some interesting information recently obtained about a curious natural phenomenon in Dominica, one of the Lesser Antilles.

This island is only 291 square miles in area. It was colonized by the Spaniards in the seventeenth century and peopled later by French emigrants, who controlled the island uninterruptedly until the eighteenth century, and its resources have since been exploited by English and French; and yet its natural curiosity in the northern part of the island had never been seen or heard of until twenty-eight years ago.

This can be explained only by the fact that the neighborhood of the boiling Lake of Dominica is difficult of access. The lake was discovered by an Englishman, Dr. Nichols, who organized an expedition to explore the unknown part of the island.

One day his little party were clambering up a mountain. They suddenly came upon evidences of sulphur, and a moment later stood looking down into a crater which was filled with boiling water.

Stifling vapors rose from the agitated surface, rumblings of thunder came from the subterranean regions, and near the center of the little lake, where the water was most violently disturbed, the furious boiling lifted the surface ten or twelve feet above the general level. The lake was constantly fed by several small brooks that poured from the heights above the crater.

Mr. Sterns-Fadelle says that the lake is still boiling. It has been found to be at an altitude of 2,490 meters above sea level. In form it is elliptical.

When it is filled with water it is about 200 feet long and less than 100 feet wide. Its depth is unknown. An attempt to touch bottom was made thirty feet from the water edge, where, at a depth of 195 feet, no bottom was reported.

The water is not always in movement. At certain times the surface is calm and glistens brilliantly under the rays of the sun.

At other times it is violently agitated and boils away, exactly like a big tea kettle. But, instead of the singing that accompanies the ebullitions in the kettle, the boiling fluid in this cauldron is accompanied by the gruffest and most unpleasant detonations. Little waves roll up on the narrow shelf of sandy beach, which is covered with a scum of sulphur.

The boiling lake is the center of the present volcanic activity of Grande Souffrière, or Diabolin, a mountain covering an area of about five square miles. The lake is one of the last vestiges of volcanic energy left to the big mountain, which within the historical period has had no great outbursts.

LAKE CICOTT’S SEVEN-YEAR RISE.
INDIANA PHENOMENON REAPPEARS ON SCHEDULE TIME.

INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 1.—With neither outlet nor inlet that is at any time visible, Lake Cicott, a small body of water in Cass County, has now reached a height which it attains every seven years, and hundreds of acres of fine corn land are covered by several feet of water. The rural mail route, which runs along the lake’s banks, has been abandoned by the carrier, for the water covers it to a depth of three feet and stretches beyond for several hundred yards.

Lake Cicott has been an interesting phenomenon to the people of northern Indiana for many years, but the secret of its rise and fall has never been discovered. It is the only Lake in Cass County and is about one mile wide and about one mile long. The water is clear and cold and perfectly fresh. Its most mysterious characteristic is the fact that it overflows its banks every seventh year. The farmers who own the land upon its banks have become so used to this that they never attempt to cultivate the land in the seventh year, but give it up without protest, as they know it is sure to be claimed by the waters.

The Pottawattomie Indians who inhabited what is now Cass and adjoining counties were familiar with the characteristic of the lake. They believed that its bottom was inhabited by a powerful spirit, which at intervals of seven years caused the lake to overflow. They construed this action as approval of the tribe by the spirit, and watched anxiously for the time to come, for they saw in the rising waters a sure indication that they had done nothing to displease it. The early white settlers became acquainted with the legend and the oldest inhabitant is not able to recall a time that the overflow did not take place when expected.

The water has now reached its highest point, and will soon begin to recede and continue to do so till the old confines are reached. Residents of the locality say that the weather conditions have no effect upon the lake, for its rise in the seventh year takes place regardless of the fact of rain or drouth. Amos Jordan, a veteran of the civil war, who lives on a bluff overlooking the lake, says the only apparent difference between wet and dry seasons when the rise occurs is that the water appears to be colder in time of drouth. What is true of the rise of the waters is also true of their recession, for they gradually disappear regardless of the amount of rainfall in the county.

The phenomenon is explained on the theory that there is a subterranean outlet, which becomes closed in some way and is opened by the pressure of the water when the highest point is reached every seventh year; but this is mere guesswork and nothing has ever been discovered to justify such a theory. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, which owns a number of ice-houses on the edge of the lake, made soundings at different places before the rise began, and found the greatest depth to be ninety feet.

Hundreds more of such clippings have been preserved in a scrap book describing similar phenomena all over the Earth, all of which seem solvable through claims herein set forth, in the combined influences of frictional and volcanic heat, and the occasional contact with outpouring streams from the internal ocean of fresh water.

THE END.