The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-12-26

is sinking now while you watch IL All
this ground you are standing on is.H
As he spoke the corner Of a great block Of
Stag on the edge Of the embankment broke
on without any apparent cause. Presently,
another huge block settled to one side with
a sullen murmur. Within sight the repor-
ter counted four other big pieces Of Stag
from which the lighter cinders occasionally
crumbled or rolled of. as though shaken
and impelled forward by an unseen force.
Continuing the section boss said:
Whenever the main track is found 10
have sunk to dangerous level. we jack
her up and ILL in under with more dirt. We
keep the running portion Of the road per-
tectly safe that way, though, of course, II
We didn't keep that operation up it might
sink out Of sight.
AN UNDERGROUND WATER CURRENT.
at has always been noticed along this
spot that after a period of high water in the
river, the main track would sink some. It
Yves very little, though. aud only happened
once In a long while This is the worst a.
OF ague it ever got.s No, the river, even at
tiood-tide, never reached the level of the
tracks. It seemed to effect the bottom of
the earth hill In some mysterious way-un-
dermine It like, though IL you look down at
the edge OF the water there you viii fiud
the land perfectly solid. The water must
face OF both hill aud river" ang
The section boss said that there were two
theories in the neighborhoOd for the trou-
BILE, one that a bed Of quicksand caused the
sinking, though he was at a loss to under
stand how the river had not washed it all
out long ago. The other idea is that far
beneath the surface there is slipping rock,
along the face Of which the earth and Stag
slide off into the river. This theory neces-
rvffh 4 hot
there is a wonderfully deep hole in the river
just there, aud this assumption is held by
some people who declare that the river Just
there has no bottom, and will drink up all
the Stag the railroad will feed to it through
the hole. AS matter OF fact, the Alle-
gheny river is deeper at this point than any
where else above Pittsburg. The stream
takes that sweep known as Logan's eddie.
SLIPPED INTO THE RIVER.
ut is % feet deep in low water"
said 81. W. Bigiey, an old resident there,
land In 1859, when the Allegheny Valley
railroad was built, it was forty-four feet
deep at low water just above the Bright
house-a hotel near the scene of the trouble
and forty feet deep at exactly the spot
where the sinking is now observed Gov.
johnson was contractor Of the Allegheny
Valley railroad when IL was building, and
one morning thirtytwo years ago. he came
up to this same spot to iud his roadbed,
ties and all gone. They had slipped into the
river over a blue, soapy mud. He dug
down through this forty feet and threw In
hundreds Of logs. He got 1000 fence rails
from me aud sunk them into the ground.
That seemed to furnish some bottom, al
though high water into theriver has always
seemed to undermine the $50 feet in an
unknown manner.
My theory" continued Mr.. Bigley, sis
that bed Of quicksand exists under there,
and that the Stag, being heavy and plenty
Of it, is squeezing this out into the river. It
is either quickssnd or some PUPPY sort OF
mud that at some tims or another was the
bed Of the river or an underground stream,
and thus is influenced by the rivers rise and
fall. There Is a sure way to test this. Take
a skiff and see if u sendbar has begun re-
Gently to form 200 or 800 feet below the
spot, and il it has you may reply upon it
that quicksand is being squashed out into
the river by this mass of Stag as It sinks
lower and lower down in the bowels of the
earth"
Perhaps Mr.. Bigley's statement that the
depth of the river here has decreased from
forty feet in 1862 to twenty eight now may
furnish a clew.