St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-10-02
4 FLORIDA LAKE GONE.
Dry Land Where Steamboats, Ran
and AlligatOrs Swished Their

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A very curious spectacle was to be
seen on the outskirts of Gainesville last
week, says letter from that Florida
town to the Atlanta Constitution. Ala
chua lake, sheet of water from ten to
fifteen miles in length, and covering
some 10000 acres of land, is no more.
On its banks were lying thousands of
dead fish: dead alligators fioated ghast-
~ i'll pools of black water, and the at
moSphere was heavy with noxious gases.
Men and boys were there in throngs.
cr0wding around the pools left by the
receding waters. and with hoes and
rakes dragging to shore hundreds of
fish which had sought their depths for
refuge. The waters were fairly alive
with their struggles for existence.
Except for a small stream known as
Payne'S creek, flowing from Newman's
lake into the Sink, the two main basins
of the Sink, and few stagnant pools,
no water is now to be seen where a few
years ago steamers were blowing their
way. This is the second time since
1923 that similar occurrence has taken
place. AT that time, the earliest year
In which there is any record of that
part or the country, the bed of the lake
was a large prairie, Payne's prairie,
having in it body of water called the
Sink and small creek. In 1868 heavy
rains filled up the prairie, but the water
disappeared after short time, and the
prairie was again dry land. In 1873,
after d series of heavy rains, the Sink
oyerfiowed and the creek swelled to the
dimensions or a lake. During several
pears the water increased till a larger
lake was formed, and for fully fifteen
years sufficient depth of water stood
over the prairie to allow of small steam
erS.
During the last two years, however,
the waters have been gradually lower
ing, and about three weeks ago they
commenced going down with surprising
rapidity, the lake falling about eight
feet in ten days, until now nothing is
left of Alachua lake but the memory of
1t. The Sink is considered the cause of
this change. There IS evidently an I'M
foreground passage connected with it,
and for some reason not understood this
underground passage has been acting
as drain until all the water in the lake
has been drawn off.
Here, in the early part of the century.
says the Florida Times Union, Indians
USED to camp yearly and feast on the
oranges, principally the bitter-sweet
and sour, large quantities of which
grew on the bank above the Sink. The
juice Of the sour orange was largely
used in fever and malarial troubles,
and the red men brought the sick long
distances that its healing virtues might
be freely tried. There is legand of
two warriors who, disputing over a
dusky maiden of the tribe, struggled
fercely in hand-to-hand combat on the
edge of the Sink, and finally fell in,
only to be drawn down by the treacher-
GUS waters into the suckho,e, from
whence they tioated through the sub
terranean channels. and later, locked in
each others arms, were found in the
waters of the st. Johns.
Near center of the Sink rises a mass
of rock, porous limestone, honeycombed
with assures, and in its middle portion
a hole in which man could stand up
right. Not particle of soil is upon or
around it, and yet vines and ferns -four
lSh, and at its peak stunted blackberry
tree throws out sparse foliage. Years
ago Prof. AgassiZ, visiting the spot with
a local scientist, remarked: "In that
rock you see the foundation on which
Florida rests; as the action of the water
wears one assure through into another
new underground channels are formed,
streams are diverted from their course,
and masses of earth fall in-hence the
sinks, mysterious rivers. etc."