Part 7
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.
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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.
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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._
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.