The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-02-23
JACOBS SINK.


the San Garcia Mountains.
Early in the spring of 1892 enterpriS
ing citizens of Henrique. Mexico, fitted
out an expedition for the purpose of
thoroughly exploring the most remark
able spot on the American continent
Jacobs Sink'-that long-supposed-t to-
be mythical basin in the San Garcia
mountains Jacobs Sink has been
known, additionally at least, for more
than one hundred years; under its pres
emit name, however, only since 1s47,
when "Lanky" Jacob, the intrepid
scout and erstwhile friend of the great
western Kansas wolf poisoner, ventured
to break the perpetual stiffness and
tread the cursed soil o. what the Next
cans firmly believe to be the DEVILS
dancing ground. According to the
popular notion Jacobs Sink" was once
part and parcel of the fertile table
land that lies between Tom Hills Peak
and the main range of the San Garcia
mountains AT one time, in the dim
mists of past ages, this remarkable, not
to say extraordinary, depression was
fourteen thousand feet above the level
of the Pacific; to-day it would be lake
eight Thousand feet deep, with perpen-
dicular banks on all sides but one,
should some convulsion of nature
or freak of the elements fill
the Sink with water. The true
native would rather suffer death by
eahy known system of torture than
TO venture into the awful solitude that
is known to reign supreme at the bot
tom of the great basin, but Jacob, with
the foolhardiness that induces or inn
pels men to press on where angels
fear to tread" boldly permitted himself
to be lowered into the grand but trri-
BILE abyss, which stretches like the
mouth of some yawning death-trap for
eleven miles in one direction and seven
and half in the other. When once at
the bottom, our bold explorer says, a
sense of extreme buoyancy of specific
lightness seemed to pervade every fiber
of his anatomy, This feeling was prob
ably due to the presence of noxious
gases that had collected at the bottom
OF the sink; at least it would be hard
to explain the phenomena of such sem
sations with any other hypothesis as a
basis. After becoming partially accus-
toned to feeling like an animated bal
loon, Mr.. Jacob ventured to explore his
unique surroundings Eternal silence
reigned supreme. As he afterwards
expressed it, che could hear his own
blood coursing through his veins and
the grinding noise made by the turning
of the wheels of the universe" Near
the center of the basin, about six or
seven miles from where he had made
the descent, he found fresh water
lake about a mile in circumference.
This was fed by a fountain having a
gyratory motion and strange periods of
activity and intermission. What finally
became of the water was a puzzle, there
being no visible outlet to the lake The
only inhabitant of thi3 queer lake, as
far as our explorer was able to ascer-
tain, was short but very thick snake,
completely armored with round plates,
which were, IN the language of the ven
turesome Jacob, exact counterparts of
bolt washers, such as are kept on sale
at hardware stores, each having disk
about the size of a dime cut from its
center" At the rar end of the sink he
found about two hundred cow brutes"
of an unknown species These, he be-
lieveS were perfectly dumb, as they
emitted no noise when they went
through every detail of lowing" or bel
lowing.
The Henrique party of 1892 failed to
find living creature in the great sink
but large stacks of horns and bones and
a few stray plates from the armored
serpent testify to the truthfulness of
the story told by the first and most dar-
ing explorer of Jacobs Sink"-St
Louis Republic