The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-08-08
AGREAT WESTERN LAKE.
Legends Make it the Home OF g
Monstrous Sea Serpent.
It Is Twelve Miles Long and No One Aas
Ever Sounded Its Bottom-Situatsd
In Deep Canyon In Palouss
County, Washington.

Long before mankind ever nealo OF
this little earth and started its con-
quest from sea monsters. says the Ia
coma Ledger, the area that now is dis
tinguished by the name Of Palouse
county had been subjected to violent
upheavals and radical changes in to-
biography. A great inland sea rested
here for many centuries and the chem
ical action Of the water enriched the
soil simultaneously with leveling the
sediment in the form of a vast plain.
Internal commissions, whether from
volcanic action or from shrinkage of
| the planet consequent upon the cool
| ing process then going on-perhaps
| both combine d-raised the submerged
plain high and dry, with steep de-
cline to the westward. The rushing
/ flood cut the la nd into ridges and ra-
vines, high bluffs and lonely rocks be-
/ ing scattered promise uously in living
evidence of the revolution The sur
| face thus presents broken and pictur-
esque scene. Chief among the Won
derful products of these prehistoric con.
vulsions and deluges is canyon over
in the northwestern part of Whitman
county containing Rock lake, sheet
of water twelve miles long by about
one hundred rods wide, bordered by
cliffs ascending perpendicularly to
heights of seventeen hundred to
twenty-five hundred feet
The canyon of Rock lake runs east
to west. 1t is deep hole in a plateau
of solid rock and the bottom has never
been sounded by man. The eastward
extremity falls ebruptly from the bed
of small creek, down and down five
hundred feet, over a cascade, down
another plunge of six hundred feet,
and finally off over second cascade
three hundred feet to the bottom. Above
the land rolls away in small heaps of
stone and barren slopes for five miles
on either side. Down at the bottom is q
valley, one by three miles in extent,
and covered with the prettiest coat OF
tropical foliage to be found anywhere.
The climate in this declivity is as trop-
ical and delightful as that which
gives Hawaii an envied fame all the
world over. The temperature seldom
falls below sixty degrees Fahrenheit
and rarely goes above ninety. The
cold of winter is seemingly unable to
reach the level of the valley, owing to
the internal warmth naturally belong
ing to hole so deep. The heat of
summer is tempered by the cooling in
fuences of the lake adjoining. The
west end of this little Garden of Eden
jumps abruptly over a precipice one
hundred feet into Rock lake, and the
western end of the lake, twelve miles
farther on, finds an outlet through mar
row passageway between hills sloping
sharply and soon breaking into dis
membered pyramids of basalt rock.
The surface of Rock lake is not much
above sea level, and the unfathomable
depth of the water, clear as crystal,
connected with weird surroundings,
affords theme for philosophic medi-
tation not surpassed by the sublime
ruggedness of the Alps
An Indian legend of this remarkable
lake makes it the home of monstrous
sea serpent. The remnants of the red
tribes which used to frequent its shores
tell their white neighbors that no In
dian can venture into the water either
for bath or a pleasure trip in canoe
without being swallowed whole by the
hideous reptile, and to this day the
aborigines look upon Rock lake with
the same apprehension that an old
time orthodox ponders over the terrors
of purgatory. Their legend declares
that an entire tribe was dashed to de-
struction and eaten not many centuries
ago, all to satisfy the greed OF this
very monster. At another time, dur
ing the outbreaks 4uelled by Col
Steptoe in 1855, band OF noble red
men. in their efforts to escape the Wig
ilance of Uncle Sans bluecoats, tried
to conceal themselves above the lake
in the little paradise but were over
taken by the great fish. the legend
avows, and sent 20 eternity.