The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1884-09-14
WONDERFUL WAYS.
The Mysteries Of the Great
Lakes.
A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE
The wretch RulofF and His victims
Three Hundred Persons Drowned
"A Mysterious Tidal Motion
The Subterranean Rivers
Rise and Fall.

"If YOU were ever drowned in Gayuga
Lake your friends need not go to the
expense or 1rouble of dragging the lake
for your bely, for they'd never find it. :"
This was the cheerful remark made
by a resident Of Ithaca, who has a taste
for geological research, and who has
INDUCED in it during the past few years
in investigating the bottom OF Cayuga
Lake.
"Frem all / have been able to dis
cover" said he, the bottom of Cayuga
lake is a series of large openings and
cavities. many OF them resembling the
craters of extinct volcanoes. Some oil
these are a hundred feet in diameter,
and all are surrounded by raised rims
like the sides of milk paR- These
craters, as believe they are heat differ
ent depths. or rather are OF different
heights. Their depth have never been
able to sound, although l have lowered
many hundred feet of plumb line into
them. They are undoubtedly fathom-
less. and have become receptacles of the
bodies of the hundreds of persons who
are known to have been drowned in the
lake during the past half century, and
of undoubted thousands of people killed
in fierce battles that were frequently
waged on the shores of the lake between
hostile tribes of the original people
years before the white man appeared on
this continent
1t was in Cayuga Lake that the wretch
Ruloff lowered the bodies of his wife
and child, enclosed in q chest, after he
had murdered them, twenty years ago.
The weeks that were spent in dragging
for the chest was time thrown away, for
il had sunk into the mouth OF one OF
these dead volcanoes, and, If 1t Is not
sinking yet, is no doubt floating about
in the bottcmless depths where, IN the
ages past, fire and smoke and ashes were
the dominant elements.
Within forty years, between two and
three hundred persons have been
drowned in Cayuga Lake, to recover the
remains of whom the grappling-ir0n and
drag have been used industri0usly, but
in vain. If it were possible for one TO
make the rounds of this lakes crater
like bed, he would, beyond doubt,
encounter hideous charnei-houees be-
yond number-caverns where thousands
Of grinning skeletons have found their
own sepulchre, subterranean catacombS
without end. Water taken from depth
of three hundred feet in Cayuga Lake
which must have been from one of these
cavities-is strongly charged with sui
phuretted hydrogen, nitrogen, carbonic
acid, and the carbonate OF lime, potash,
soda, and magnesia.
Cayuga Lake has also mysterious
tidal motion. Its irregular in its occur
ence, but very decided The phenomenon /
has been known to appear twice in a |
ho1
elapsed between its periods. The water /
gradual, but the flood tide comes in with /
considerable force and rapidity. This |
phenomenon is also noticed on Seneca /
Lake, which Is divided from Cayuga by /
the high Seneca County hills. The sur |
face of Seneca Lake is fifty feet above |
that of Cayuga Lakes, but believe its |
bed Is of the same remarkable character. /
Seneca Lake rises and falls as much as |
three feet during the time of its tidal |!
commotion, which is also irregular in its |
period.
believe there is a subterranean river |
running from Lake Superior, through |
Lakes Huron and Michigan, under Lake |
Erie, and emptying into Lake Ontario. |
There is no other way in which TO |
explain certain mysteries connected with |
Superior is about $50 feet above tide. |
while its bed is 260 feet below tide level. |
Lake Hur0n's surface is 90 feet below |
that of Superior's, and its bed is about !
on the level with Superior's. The sur !
face of Lake Michigan is 100 feet lower |
than Lake Huron's, and its bed IS sunk |
a corresponding distance to the level of |
the other two lakes. Lake Fries sur
facets nearly as high as Lake Michigan's, |
being 565 feet above tide, but its bed is |
also above tide, being $50 feet higher /
than the ocean level, consequently its |
bed is 9e0 feet higher than those above |
1t. Lake Ontario's surface is the lowest |
OF all the great lakes, being less than |
800 feet above tide, but its bed is $50 feet |
below the ocean, or about the same level |
as Michigan, Huron, and Superior. So |
there Is a continuous fall from Lake |
Superior TO Ontario, and all the outlet |
that the upper lakes have that is known /
is the comparatively insignificant |
Detroit River. That stream never can
care for all of that great pressure and [
volume from above, and the theory of |
an underground river, such as / men
toned, seems to be most reasonable.
All the st. Lawrence fishes are taken in
every one of the lakes but Lake Erie. /
Why? Because they follow the course
OF the subterrrnean stream, passing 300 |
feet beneath the bottom of Lake Erie, |
and enter the waters of the upper lakes. t
The great lakes above Lake Erie have an
occasional iux and refux of their |
waters, corresponding with ocean tides,
save in regularity.
The subterranean river, according TO I
my theory, becomes occasionally /
obstrurted by great obstacles that are
constantly moving down from the lake
bottoms. Then thechannels of the out
lets are insufficient to carry off the great |
volume of water, and they are damned |
back, and the lakes rise. Finally these |
distractions are swept away by the ire
sistabIe pressure, the river flows natur- /
ally once more, and the damned waters |
That is the whole mystery of /
the rise and fall of the tides in the great /
lakes ~ New York SIN, I!