Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1885-03-14
SELECTIONS.
THE MYSTERY OF THE LAKES.

of you are drowned in Cayuga
Lake your friends need not go
to the expense or trouble of drag.
ging the lake for your body, fol
they'd never find it,"
This was the cheerful remark
mace by resident of Ithaca, New
York, who has taste for geological
research, and who has INDUCED ii
during the past few years inyesti
eating the bottom Of Caynga Lake.
"From all l have been able to dis.
cover" said he, /" the bottom of Cay
uga lake is q series oflarge openings
and cavities, many of them resem-
bling the craters of extinct volca-
noes. Some of these are hundred
feet in diameter, and are all sur
rounded by raised rims like the sides
OF milk pan. These craters, rs
believe they are, are ut different
depths, rather, are of different
heights. Their depth / have never
been able to sound. although | have
lowered many hundred feet of plow
lines in them. They are undoubted-
~ fathomless, and have become the
receptacles of the bodies of the hun
dreds OF persons who are known TO
have been drowned in the lake dur
ing the past half century, and Of the
undoubted thousands of people killed
in the fierce battles that were fire.
quently waged on the shores of the
lake between hostile tribes of the
"original people" years before the
white man appeared OH this CONT
nant.
1t was in Cayuga Lake that the
wretch Rulloff lowered the bodies of
his wife and child, enclosed in a
chest, after he had murdered them, 90
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 vol.
canoes, and, if it is not sinking yet,
is no doubt about in the bottomless
depth where, in the ages past, fire
and smoke and ashes we're the domi-
nant elements.
Within 40 years between 200
and 300 persons have been drowned
in Cayuga Lake, to recover the re-
mains of whom the graphing iron
and drag have been used indnstri-
ously, but in vain. fit were posi-
BILE for one to make the rounds of
this lakes craterlike bed, he would,
beyond doubt, encounter hideous
charnel houses beyond number
caverns where thousands of grinning
skeletons have found their own Sc
puEhre, subterranean catacombs
without end. Water taken from a
depth of 800 feet in Cayuga Lake
which must been have one OF these
cavities-is strongly charged with
sulphretted hydrogen, carbonic acid,
and the cal Donates of line, potash,
soda and magnesia.
"Cayuga Lake has also myster-
ious tidal motion. 1t is irregular in
its occurrence, but very decided. The
phenomenon has been known to APP
pear twice a year, and then two
years or more elapsed between its
periods. The water frequently re-
cedes so feet. The ebb is gradual,
but the flood-tide comes in with con-
siderable force and rapidity. This
phenomenon is also noticed on Sen
eca Lake, which is divided from Ca
yuga by the high Seneca County
hills. The surface of Seneca Lake
is 60 feet above that of Cayuga Lake,
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 commo-
4
ton, which is also irregular in its
periods.
/ believe there is a subterranean
river running from Lake Superior,
through Lakes Huron and Michigan,
under Lake Erie, and emptying
into Lake Ontario. All the st. Law.
renee fishes are taken in every one
of the lakes but Lake Erie. WHY
Because they follow the course OF
the suhterranean stream, passing 300
feet beneath the bottom of Lake
Erie, and enter the waters Of the
lakes. The Great Lakes above Lake
Erie have an occasional hnx and re