The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-09-13
Lake 1ahoe-amG PAjyosophy.


Some twelve or fourteen persons have been
drowned in Lake Tahoe within the past ten
years: none of the bodies have ever been re-
covered. Superstition, ever ready to weave 4
sentiment from natures laws, asserted that
there was doubtful mystery i'll the nOn-r,-
covery of the drowned that, in fact, a mon
Ster had its abode in this treSh-water sea,
and that the bodies passed into ITS ''l'4-
CiOUS NAV. The true explanation oi inns
lnystery never has been given. Ihe hoi-tl'-
pearauCe OF the bodies is due 10 three causes
The first is, the great purity oi the wafer
and its consequent lack of hUoyancy. DrOWn-
ing is very easy in IL for TINS reason, though
I have not. while swimming IN II, 1ound any
more than ordinary difficulty in sustaining
MYSELF The second and main cause i due
TO the great GOODNESS Of the water Even at
this, the Warmcst season, the surface water
is as cold as the drin&er desires it To be- but 1T
is warm there compared with itstcmpcraturc
1T the depth OF 100 or 200 feet. 1t Il as cold
there aS the arctic heat OF an iceberg. When
q body sinks IN the lake to the depth re
CURED it is frozen stiff. The process, Of
course, preserves II, 50 that the gas which
originates from decay in other water is pre-
vented, and disteuson checked. The body
is thus kept in Il state of greater specific
gravity than the water in which il il suS-
pended, and thereby prevented from rising
10 the surface. The third cause lies in the
great pressure of the pure water on anything
which Is sunk to q great depth IN II. Corks
placed on deep Sea-u"tS are pressed down IN
q week 10 half their size and one of The
oldest residents of the lake CN presses t3,c
belief that, by the time a mans body has
been suspended for q week ut Il depth OF
about 200 feet CIT is not likely that II ever
reaches the caverEoUs and almost tuthomless
bottom Of the great lake, ,Le compression
Of the water has reduced ITS size 10 thai OF q
Child's Doubtless the idea OF y;ncCttiucG
suspension in such a world of water Is
not pleasant one 70 contemplate, but to Gc
pressed into q solid mass, and suspended in
81 n.-h. .ess
as pleasant as iuterment and Wondering il
the ground.
This seems to be the era Of hoaxeS. tho
it may be doubted whether the foregoing
IS hoax, or an enauation from some
wOuld-be philosopher. How philosopher
could cOntrive III one moderate paragraph
to comprise so many ridiculous statements
Is the mystery.
The first statement that some twelve or
fourteen persons have been drowned in
Lake Tahoe whose bodies have not been
recovered, may or may not lie true. The
true eNplanation' is the curious part.
First, the grt at purity of the water-and
its consequent lack Of buoyancy." This
however the author of This wonderful phil
csophical diSquisitiOn contTadicts, himself,
Second, the great coIduess Of the water,
and the freezing stiff Of tie bodies few
hundred feet down. The idea that there
could be any such coldneSs in that water,
or that any such effect could take place
is contrary to the simplest fact in the mo
tion of warm and cold PARTICLES Of water
There could be no freezing below Of deep
water in lake, unless it were first frozen
at the surface. The freezing on stones, at
the bottom Of shallow running streams, is
another thing. Besides, tits q pure asSump-
tion for nothing whatever Is known, ac-
cording to the preamble ofthc author, con
corning the drowned persons. Third. 1.-The
great pressue Of the pure water.'' This is
diametricaIly opposite Ito the claim that
owing to the purity Of the water bodies
would ''eaSily sink The pressure, in
that water. could not be materially differ
cnt from the pressure in any fresh water
lake. The paper closes with the profound
opinion Of ''oue Of the Oldest residents of
the eialle''-doUbtless a queer fiSh-that the
body of a man at two hundred feet depth
would be compressed to the size of child.
Altogether it is a very childish production,
which is now going the rounds of the pa
-Puts5u}gh Post.