The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-06-05
The Unseen Rivers of the West.

Since the first exploration Of Fremont and his
coadiutors among the peaks and canyons of the
Rocky Mountain system, the books of travellers in
that region TEEN with accounts OF paradoxes that
set the ordinary courses of nature ut defiance. OF
these there are almost numberless different classes,
but two or three Will serve for Illustration.
Large rivers. they tell Us. after flowing hundreds
of miles. and receiving the waters of 4 large trib-
utary system. suddenly disappear, vanish from
sight. and give No clue 10 their exit In some
cases the mouth of Il stream seems 10 be at or near
It's middle. the currents flowing both ways till
they meet and disappear. Salt Lake. with all
the waters it receives, never rises a single inch
nor loses Il drop of water through any visible out
let.
Again, the traveller, standing upon some of the
immense masses of rock among the hills, feels 4
tremendous quiyering motion. a. though some
Titanic railway train Numbered along beneath
the surface. Through assures in the cliffs strange
currents of air roar and whisper. and from far
within there comes the faint murmur as of a
mighty organ. From Fremont TO Dixon, travel
crs have been content To repeat the phrases of
their Indian guides and call these phenomena
simply e. blowing caves. -. trembling rocks. and
= lost rivers If any have dared 10 theorize,
they have feared 10 write what they have dreamed.
There is at last. however. Il book in the press
which boldly faces the mystery. The writer Is
Mr.. George Catlin. who for many years dwelt
among the Indians of the west. and whose portraits
Va blA'2 AA1& -1NA AVIAN N-S fAAAN AAA -
by which that race will be remembered.
Nh. Catlin boldly announces his theory that
under the entire Rocky Mountain chain. from
Alaska to the Caribbean Sea, there flows a vast
subtcrrancan river, whose tributaries burrow be-
meath all the principal and divergent ranges. and
derive their waters from the constant melting of
the ice and snow of the mountain slopes, and from
the flow of the : lost rivers of the plains. The
~ trembling rocks are the roof of some roaring
subterranean cataract, whose spray rising through
the assures gives us the . stcaIning caves" of the
Rocky Mountain story.
Among the mountains of Oregon the traveller
finds 4 lake whose shores are 4 sheer wall of
granite 2,0G0 feet in depth. No human foot ever
its perpendicular face, no human hand ever
touched its silent waters. Like Il huge well it
sinks away into the earth like the guarded door of
4 realm which human discovery can never pene-
trate. MAY not this he 4 window looking down
upon the submontagne Amazon which the indian
painter has attempted TO describe, Il single peep
down to the siicht river which flows thence
Inder 4 thousand miles of mountain rock. to min
gle ut last with the waters OF the trOpic gulf?
Two well known facts seem to point strongly
toward the truth of Mr.. Catlin's theory. \
glance at any map will show that the river system
If the Rocky Mountain country is entirely made
luate to carry off the water which the snow and
of that district would create. Secondly. the
evel of the Caribbean sea, at the point where Mr..
'atlin's theoretical river would naturally pour
nat its submarine eiluX, is noticeably higher than
he open sea outside.
Whatever other facts may sustain or dispute
new hypothesis, it is certain to open the way
D Il much more minute and intelligent inveStiga-
of the subject than it has ever before received.
study of the submontagne river system and
he Aztec monuments of Mexico and California,
hould make that corner of the Republic the
hosen haunt Of science and discovery for 4 centu-
y TO come.