The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-04-18
A SUBTERRANEAN STORY.


second day the captains curiosity was aroused
by q strange floating mass, and he ordered
the mate TO take a boat and examine it. The
mate returned towing = leg, from which the
Han had cut away the marine growth which
had made it seam at a distance Ike q SEA
monst@ The captain ordered it to be hoist
ed to the deck, declaring that in fezsy years
spent at sea ne had never fSdnd ANYTHING
ike it.
When laid On thu deck it was seen to be
about twenty fes5 long and two feet Ia diam
eter. It was Of some very hard, dark colored
wood, Lie palm, eharTed IN places, and wern
and broken, cut and torn, as If it had been
whirled through torrents and maeIstroms for
hundreds OF years. The ends were pointed,
and five bands of dark metal, Ike bronze,
were sunk in the wood, and the whole bore
evidence OF having passed through intenss
heat On closer examination the log was
seen to consist Of two parts, and these bands
were to bind It together. The captain had
the bands cut, and in the exact ce1ber, fitted
into a cavity, was a round stone eighteen
inches in diameter. The rest Of the wood was
solid.
The captain, more disappointed at this re-
suit than he cared 70 confess, picked up the
stone and was greatly astonished at its light
ness. Examining it more closely, he reInem-
bered that when a boy on the old New HanD-
shire farm he used to find hollow stones with
crystals in them-geodes, as he afterwards
heard them called. This was probably a
geode, placed in this strange receptacle for
some unknown purpose. He carried il 10 his
cabin and put it into ms chest.
Two months later the old captain returned
TO his cottage on Galveston bay and placed
among his curiosities the geode he had so
strangely found in the Gulf stream One
day ne studied it again, and the sunlight
CHANGED to fall upon a narrow, irregular line.
Il declare said the old man, lit looks like
as if this stone had been patched together!"
He struck it with hammer and it fell
apart and proved to be filed with small
pieces of yellowish brown wood. The shell
of the stone was about an inch thick, studded
over inside with thousands Of garnet crys-
tails. 1t had been broken into three parts
and fastened together again with some sort of
cement which showed plainly on the inside.
The old captain poured the pieces Of wood
on the table. They were perfectly dry and
hard. They seemed almost like strips Of
bamboo and were numbered and covered
with writing, made by pricking marks with
some sharp instrument like an awl Es
found the first piece Of wood and began to
read, for it was in English. The work of de-
ciphering the tiny dents on the bits of wood
soon became the captains chief occupation
He copied each sentence of in his old log
book as fast as it was made out Five or six
sentences were about all his eyes would stand
without rest, SO that 1t was long tine 6e-
fore the narrative was at all complete. The
narrative runs es follows:
HEARTS OF THE ROCKIES,
About Sept, II, 1886.
am an American, Timothy Parsons, OF
Machias, Me. have no living relatives /
write this IN vast vaulted chamber, hewn
from the solid granite by some prehistoric
race. have been for months a wanderer III
these subterTanean spaces, and now have
contrtved way to send my message out to
the world that I shall probably never sea
again. II some miner, tunneliag in the
Rockies. comes upon vaulted chamber, with
heaps Of ancient weapons Of bronze, bars OF
gold and precious stones that no man may
number, let him give Christian burial to ths
poor human bones that lie in this horrible
treasure houSa. Es VIII find all that is LETT
Of my mortal frame near the great ever burn
ing lamp, under tho dome Of the central hall
That lamp is fed from some reservoir of nat
ural gas. 1t was lighted when 1 came, months
ago. For all | know otherwise, 1t has burned
there for thousands Of years.
The entrance to this sGb-nontane river Is
In the AsSinnaboine mountains, north Of the
United States line l WIS proSDector thers
for several years, and heard stories among
the older Indians that river greater than
the Columbus had once flowed where tho
Rocky mountains now are; that the Great
Spirit hal piled the mountains over it and
buried it deep underground. At last uledi-
cine man, whoSe lilo I had once saved, told
me that he knew how to get to the river, and
be took me into a cavern IN a deep gOrGa
Here we lived for week, exploring by means
of pine torches, and at last found a passage
which ran steadily downward. This, tie In
dian told me, WIS tho path By which his an
cestors, who once lived il the middle OF the
earth, had found their way to the light OF
day.
l think we were about three thousand
feet below the entrance Of the cave, when
we began TO hear the sound Of roaring wa
terS Tho sound increased until we stood by
al underground river, OF whose width and
depth We could form no idea. The light Of
our torches did not even reveal the beighE Of
the roof overhead. Ny guide told me THAI
this was the mother Of al tho rivers of the
world. No other person except himself knew
Of its existence. II flowed from the end Of
the north to the extreme south 1t grew
even warmer and warmer. There was
time when tbs people lived Glsng It's channel,
aud there were houses and eieies of the dead
there and many strange things Is was full
Of fish wi5hout eyes aud they we're good 70
eat II I could help him build raft he
would hoat with NE down tbs river The
old. old stories said that one could 90 upon il
for many n1iies u ran down . bnllow TN
der toe mountains
We built aad equipped OUT raft and
launched It on t-s most fooIhsIdy edYenturc,
l 40 believe, that ever occupied ras attention
of men. We lit torches and sst them IN sock
cts on the raft, and We were well armed Fer
two weeks we moved down toe high arc4Wsy
at q steady rate Of only sboct three miles an
hour. The average w5d1n Of sas stream was
about SO feet, but al TINES i, Si6ersd cut to
almost twice that It sSe-E7Sd with many
kinds 81 fist, END they were vs-y ezSv - So
cure. Tee rocE walls and rocf s>sassd 70 %
OF solid graai1a. We were bclJI ire later
formations
As nearly as can caIcujafs we we're about
a thousand miles from -ns-e cur voyage 30
gan aud noting had yes happened % dis
turb It's monetary, when ~ BEGAN TO find
traces q ancient work and v0zkezA An an
gle II tue wan was heTn into a TGrzn1c Is
ure; at anot1sr point thsre SEEMED to % ree7-
lar vindoTs. and E dwelling was pe7csed tsr
Up il TIE granite dome
TIE Indian told me DoCe & teS Traditions
Of his rzcs as We drIfsed pest t5ass thfngz
They were very greas Essa who lived as-a-
TL,sr I'd -xtsi.gs: taey kEsz maEs ttran