The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-11 00:00:00

THE GREAT SUB-ROCK RIVERS.

The conjecture so confidently announced by Mr.
Catlin, the. American ethnographist, of a mighty
river flowing underneath the Rocky Mountains
along subterranean passages into the Caribean
Sea, startling us it is, receives confirmation in facts
now well ascertained. This traveller, who for many
years has studied the Indians and the rocks both of
North and South America, has not yet published
his book, " The Lifted and Subsided Rocks of Arne-
r ic their Influence on the Oceanic, Atmo-
spheric,with their
Land Currents ;" and all we know of it
is from the extracts given in Triihner's Literary Re-
cord. We cannot tell therefore what he advances
in support of his opinion, but there are well-known
facts which go far to bear him out. The country
between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Ne-
vada is a vast basin, with valleys for the most part
standing at an elevation of 5,000 feet from the sea
level, though above them tower high ranges, which
attain a stupendous altitude in the peaks of the
Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. Al-
though heavy rains fall on and streams in every
direction flow from the hills, yet in districts of
great extent they leave nothing, but briney quag-
mires, which here and there rise into the dignity of
salt lakes. The rivulets pour down the mountains into
the valleys, where they disappear, and in Nevada at
every step this phenomenon occurs. Sometimes
when the valley is narrow between two ranges these
feeders may for a short period maintain a river, but
eventually the thirsty soil beats the water, com-
ple;ely absorbing it. Look, for instance, at the
Reese River. Fed by parallel mountains of consider-
able altitude, it maintains its way for pernaps 200
miles and sinks; even the Humboldt reaches but the
lake of that name. and is gone. With the exception
of the Colorado we know of no river that can be
said in any way to drain the vast country between
the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, where
there must be an immense flow from so very ele-
vated and mountainous a region. In the valleys
are numerous geysers, and in. many places •th re
Sprout from the ground crops of salt which
effloresce as fast as they are swept away. Mr. Catlin
says—" The frequent INlontagnes gni furnent,'
Roches qui tremblent,' and Blowing Caves,'
which occur in the Rocky Mountain range indi-
3ate submontagne cascades, caused by the waters
of melting snows, of rains, of glaciers, and a thou-
sand sinking livers and lakes, which, amongst_
broken and angular rocks, are on their way to the
ocean level." Again, in discussing the Andes,
through whose vast and heated vaults be bylieves a
similar river to flow northward from the 30..11 deg.
of south latitude to the Carribeau Sea, he alludes
to the traditions of the Indians as agreeing with
the unimpeachable record of the rocks themselves.
lie states it to be evidenced " by sh Tea and
grooves left in the giant walls at Caraccas and
S Luta Martha, on the coast of Venezuela, w here
this mighty chain was broken ; records which I
have twice seen, which may be read by all ages to
come, and which are not myths or fables." Sup
posing what Mr. Catlin asserts to be the case, 6,001)
years ago two of the largest rivers met beneath the