Morning journal and courier., 1890-04-08
sUnTERRANEAN RIVERS.
some OF the Famous water Course
Beneath tho Earth,s Surface.

some OF the Famous water Courses
Beneath tho Earth,s Surface.
from the San Francisco Chronicle
The list of subterranean rivers of impor-
tanoe is being constantly added to, and what
used to be very limited list has now become
quite an extended one. 1t was only few
days ago that the dispatches gave an account
of the discovery Of one Of these streams in
one of the Eastern states, and Its exploration
for miles In canos by the two adventurous
discovers. According to the published ao-
counts this stream is eyen more remarkable
than that found in the Mammoth cave in
Kentucky. This latter flows distance of
three hundred feet beneath the earth's sur
face, between banks about thirty feet apart,
and is q volume of water forty feet deep.
Rolling oa for about . quarter OF mile 1t
both it's coming and Its going as the mystery
of life itself. Less known, or rather less
written of, is the river Lys, which, on Its
entrance into Belgium, dashes abruptly over
q precipice and IL lost to sight fox nearly
half mile. The Meuse also has subterra-
mean course, extending to distance of six
miles, while tho river Dromme, in Norman
thirty-nine feet wide, known as the Pit of
Soucy, from which it never reappears, except
in the form of new springs, which are sup
posed to arise from the lost waters. In
Derbyshire, England, there are two small
streams called the Hamps and the Manifold.
Formed by the union of several small springs
they flow in the open for short distance,
and then turn in close together under the
face of a kill range. Here they have made
for themselves passage through the solid
earth, and for miles they flow underground,
each maintaining its own complete individu-
ality, until at length they re-emerge to the
light by apertures only fifteen yards apart.
That their waters never intermingle is proved
by this ekperiment-that any floating body
ground passage again reappears In the sepa-
rate river into which 1t has been thrown,
when the strange streams of water issue into
the light of day.
A somewhat eimilar condition of affairs is
said to exist about . little Cornish lake called
Dozmere, or Dosmary pool, supposed to be
that mere into which the good sword Excalt-
bar was thrown. 1t has neither visible OUT
let nor inlet, but 1t IL said that articles
thrown into the lake will reappear in Fall
mouth harbor, which is at least sixty miles
| away. There is quite an Arthurian favor OF
romance about this story it is true, but the
| thing is vouched for as 8 fact by several re-
putable t'oldest inhabitants !"
Sometimes the conditions are reversed and
| the river instead of disappearing before 1t
reaches the sea, comes from the sea and dis
| appears in the land. In the article in Nature
Of January, 1886, entitled, "Curious Phe-
nomena in Cephalonia," the writer says:
s'The sea runs into the land in strong
stream, turning water wheel on the way.
and disappears in the earth about one hun
dred yards from the entrance. I imagine, "
ssys the contributor, t'that the water must
| be converted into steam which comes out
either at Naples or Cephalonia."
This is by no means the only sea fed river,
it appears, for very soon after the publica
ton Of the above statement 1t was followed
BY another from New York gentleman