The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-05-31
THE MYSTERY OF THE LAKES.
Cayuga's Bed of Craters-A Subterranean
River Between Superior and Ontario.
New York sun.


River Between Superior and Ontario.
New York SUM-
IF you are ever drowned in Cayuga lake your
friends need not go to the expense or trouble OF
dragging the lake for your body, for they d
never find it,
This was the cheerful remark made by a resi-
dent of Ithaca, who has a taste for geological
research. and who has INDUCED it during the
past few Years in investigating the bottom of
| Cayuga lake
From all l have been able to discover" said
he, 1.-THE bottom of Cayuga lake is a series of
large openings and cavities many of them re
sembling the craters of extinct volcanoes. some
of these are hundred feet in diameter, and are
all surrounded by raised rims like the sides OF a
milk pan These craters, as believe they are,
lie at different depths, rather, are of different
| heights. Their depth have never been able to
sound. although have lowered many hundred
| feet of plumb line into them. They are undoubt-
eddy fathomess, 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 the undoubted
| thousands Of people killed in the fierce battles
that were frequently waged on the shores OF the
lake between hostile tribes of the Original PEG
Pile years before the white man appeared on
this continent.
1T was in Cayuga lake that the wretch Rul-
loh lowered the bodies of his wife and child,
enclosed in a chest after he had murdered them,
twenty years ago The weeks that were spent
IN dragging for the chest was time thrown away,
for it had sunk into the mouth of one of these
dead volcanoes, and, if it is not sinking yet Is
no doubt floating about in the bottomless 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
graphing iron and drag have been used indus
triously, but in vain. If it were possible for
one to make the rounds of this lakes craterlike
bed, he would undoubtedly encounter hide
Gus charnelhouses beyond number-eaverns
where thousands of e1inning skeletons have
found their own sepulchre subterrauean cata-
combs without end Water taken from depth
! of 800 feet in Cayuga Lake-which must have
| been from one of these cavities-is strongly
charged with sulphuretted hydrogen, nitrogen,
carbonic acid, and the carbonates of lime. potash,
| soda, and magnesia.
! "Cayuga lake has also mysterious tidal mo-
ton. II is irregular in its occurrence, but very
decided. The phenomenon has been known to
| appear twice year. and then two years or more
| have elapsed between its periods. The water
| frequently recedes fifty feet. The ebb is grad
ual but the flood tide comes in with considera-
bic force and rapidity. This phenomenon IS
! also poticed in Seneca lake, which is divided
| from Cayuga by the high Seneca county hills
The surface of Seneca lake is sixty feet above
that Of Cayuga lake, but believe its bed is of
the same remarkable character. Seneca lake
rises and falls much as three feet during the
time of its tidal commoton, which is also irregu-
lar in its periods
Il believe there is subterranean river run
ming 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 our great lakes. The surface of Lake
Superior is about $50 feet above the tide while
its bed is 260 feet below tide level Lake
Hurons surface is so feet below that of Supe-
rior's, and its bed is about a level with Supe-
riors The surface of Lake Michigan is 300 feet
lower than Lake Hurons, and it bed is sunk
corresponding distance to the level of the other
two lakes. Lake Erie's surface is nearly as
high as Lake Michigans, being 500 feet above
tide but its bed is also above tide being $50 feet
higher than the ocean level, consequently
! its bed is $50 feet higher than those of
the lake above it. Lake Ontarios surface is the
lowest of all the great lakes, being less than 800
feet above tide, but its bed is 260 feet below the
ocean, or about the same level as Michigan,
Huron and Superior. So there is 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
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 subter-
ranean stream, passing 300 feet beneath the bot
tom of Lake Erie, and enter the waters of the
upper lakes. The great lakes above Lake Erie
have an occasional tiux and rehuX of Their waters
corresponding with ocean tides save in regular
ity.
''The subterranean river, according to my
theory, becomes occasionally INSTRUCTED by great
obstacles that are constantly moving down from
the large bottoms. Then the channels of outlet
are insufficient to carry off the great volume of
water, and they are damned back, and the lakes
rise Finally these obstructions are swept away
by the irresistible pressure the river flows
turally once more, and the damned waters sub
side. That is the whole mystery of the rise and
fall of the tides in the great lakes" .