The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1893-06-17
4 WONDERFUL DISCOVERY,

over the signature of John L. Oben
dorff the following account of the
discovery of subterranean river in
Nye county
One of the most important discov-
cries of modern times is the finding of
a subterranean river of waterway that
probably drains the State and may
prove to be capable of furnishing
means of transportation for her people
and products.
1t has long been mystery what
became of our sunken rivers Now it
is probably explained by the discovery
of huge subterranean tunnel (which
I have named the Monarchy, which
contains running stream, how wide
I could not tell, as the light was in
sufficient.
THE DISCOVERY.
The discovery of this tunnel was
purely accidental. While working in
the bottom of the shaft of the Mon
arch mine, I put in shot, and in de-
scending to see what execution had
been done, I found that had broken
through into what looked like cave,
with a strong current of air coming up
from it. On investigation I found
that the opening continued down on an
incline. Determined to see what there
was below. I put in cross timber
and attached rope to it. I went
down considerable distance. In some
places the opening was very narrow
and at other places four feet wide. In
some places it was nearly perpendicu
lar, but generally it was about half
pitch. I proceeded down to the end
of my rope, put in another cross tim
Der, and so continued. 1t took three
days hard work before I reached the
bottom.
When I got to the bottom, I saw a
wonderful thing-a large cavern and
river flowing through it. At first
l thought it was lake, but on reach
ing the edge of the water I found that
it was flowing stream, and by throw
ing in piece of lighted paper I found
that it had current of about three
miles an hour.
I was on the southeast shore and
the bank sloped down to the wateredge
gradually, like sea beach. The roof
was thirty or forty feet high, the tenn
perature was mild, and slight cur
rent of air was perceptible, flowing in
the same direction as the water. Be-
ing without facilities for further ex-
ploration, | returned to the surface.
AN UNDERGROUND RIVER.
The next morning l lowered three
four-foot planks to the bottom of the
shaft, and supplying myself with lunch
rope, candles and matches, descend
ed to the bottom (Which I think is
about 600 feet below the surface). I
dashed my planks together and made a
raft, placed two lighted candles on it
and let her go to the end of the rope.
In this way learned there were no
falls in that distance. [ continued
in this manner for over two miles. In
this distance [ met with no obstacle,
only here and there where the tunnel
cut through a hard formation, there
would be rocks projecting to the waters
edge, but not preventing me from
walking over them.
The average width of the stream is
about 100 feet, and from band to bank
is over 200 feet.
QUARTZ LEDGES.
On my return I inspected the diff
ferent strata of rock out by the water.
Limestone was the first formation 1
noticed, and the tunnel kept it's width
pretty even, but in others there were
large caverns washed out In these
places there was lots of crystal hang
ing from the ceiling, and it glistened
beautifully even by candle light.
The next formation was granite and
and here the cavern widened out with
occasional washouts. Here I found
a large quartz ledge but of low grade
(assays 80 to the tony After the
granite came porphyry. Here in some
places big caverns were washed out.
This ended my first exploration. The
next morning explored the tunnel