The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1869-03-31
CIR pemoerat.
. River Under the Rocky Mountains


Trubner's Record contains the follow
ing letter from Mr.. Catlin:
Mr. Catlin, the American etanogTaphist,
whose eXstensiye travels have led him
through the widest and rudest scenery of
America, has turned his attention for sever
al years past from the Indians to rocks, and
has made in these studies, vorages TO South
America, TO the Rocky Mountains, the An
DIES and Antilles, the results of which he is
preparing to publish in a work eatitled The
Lifted and subsidized Rocks of America, with
their Influences on the Oceanic, Atmosphe-
rio and Land Currents And one of the
striking features Of his book seems to be TO
quote his own words, the discovery of q
river under the Rocky Mountains many
times larger than the Mississippi, its course
nearly twice the MississIppi's length, and
gliding through the clean and vast rocky eel
lars of the upheaved mountains without the
I)sses of alluvial INSCRIPTIONS and solar evap-
~orations which diminish valley rivers; IL takes
slong in its course the sinking streams and
lakes of the Mountains of Mexico, and with
them perhaps by a hundred mouths in its
deep bed, debouches unseen into the Caribbean
Sea and Gulf of Mexico.
eThe frequent .AonLdg1eS QUi fttne7lt,
sRocheS Qdi drea6IeRt, and tBLolCiqg
Cares which occur in the Rocky Mountain
range Che says) indicate submontagne cas-
cades, caused by the waters of melting SHOWS,
of rains, of glaciers, and q thousand sink
ing rivers and lakes, which, amongst brok-
en- up and angular rocks are on their way
to the ocean level
Through the vast and heated vault un-
derneath the Andes, 1 contemplate a similar
river, running from the thirtieth degree Of
south latitude to the north, and carrying
their overlooking waters also 10 the Caribbean
Sea-
The Antilles, now partially sunk in the
ocean, are but a a chain of mountain tops
which, six thousand years ago, stood up in
their grandeur, n part land, probably, the
glory) of the Andes; and at that date the two
mighty submontagne rivers, meeting and de-
bouching together INTO the ocean, east OF
north of Antilles, combined with extraord-
mary volcanic influences, undermined The
Antilles chain, which e down into the
Cataclysm well established in Indian tradi-
tons, which / have gathered both in North
ard South America, and also by unimpeacha-
BILE records on the rocks themselves-by
shapes and grooves left in the giant walls al
Caracas and Santa Martha, OF the coast of
Venezuela, where this mighty chain was
broken; records which l have twice seen,
which may be read by all ages to come, and
which are not myths or fables.
In this tremendous catastrophe, probably
the most ~stupendous that ever took place on
the surface of the globe, the Peninsula OF
Yucatan, with its SPLENDID Aztec cities,
sank. and since has partially rizen, leaving
the two grand sunken estuaries, the u Of
Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, into which
the two subterranean rivers, from the con
slant overflow of their vast clsterns undel
the mountains, now spread their clear anC
blue waters, heated by the volcanic furnaces
they have passed. BY the JOINT influx o.
these rivers into the Caribbean Sea, its west
err surface is elevated several feet allow
the level of the ocean; and pouring into tn
Gulf of Mexico, sweeping its western coast
and taking in its way the waters of Rio de
Norte and the Mississippi, this vast hooC
debouches with them into the Atlantic, q
the Florida Cape, and.there becomes to Gul
Stream, until now one of the mooted puz
zles of the world. GEoRGE CATLIS.