The Irish standard., 1893-07-29
AGREAT WESTERN LAKE.
Legends Make it the Home Of q
Monstrous Sea Serpent.
1t Is Twelve Miles Long and No Ono Hav
Ever Sounded Its Bottom = Situated
In a Deep Canyon in Palouse
County, Washington.

Long before mankind ever heard Of
this little earth and started it's 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 shrinlSage 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
food 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-
.esaue scene. Chief among the Won
ierful 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
80 west. 1t is deep hole in plateau
of solid rock and the bottom has never
peen sounded by man. The eastward
extremity falls abruptly from the bed
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
ihe land rolls away in small heaps of
stone and barren slopes for five miles
On either side Down at the bottom is a
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-
cal and delightful as that which
gives Hawaii an envied fame all the
world over. The temperature seldom
ellis 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
she internal warmth naturally belong
ing to hole SO deep. The heat of
: nmmer is tempered by the cooling in
sluences of the lake adjoining. The
west end of this little Garden of Eden
Jumps abruptly over precipice one
hundred feet into Rock lake, and the
western end of the lake, twelve miles
farther on, finds an outlet through a. mar
low passageway between hills sloping
sharply and soon breaking into dis
sx,embered 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-
e:ation not surpassed by the sublime
ruggedness of the Alps.
An Indian legend Of this remarkable
lake makes it the home Of a monstrous
sea serpent. The remnants OF the red
tribes which used to frequent it's shores
:ell their white neighbors that no In
Ian can venture into the water either
fcr bath or pleasure trip in "a canoe
Without being swallowed whole by the
',ideous reptile, and to this day the
aborigines look upon Rock lake with
sac same apprehension that an old
tjme orthodox ponders over the terrors
~ purgatory. Their legend declares
sllat an entire tribe was dashed to de-
struction and eaten not many centuries
xgo, all to satisfy the greed of this
rery monster. At another time, dur
ing the outbreaks luelled by Col.
>teptoe in 1858, band of noble red
Zen, in their efforts to escape the Wig
ance of Uncle Sans bluecoats, tried
- conceal themselves above the lake
"a the little paradise but were over
aiken by the great fish, the legend
avows, and sent to eternity.
THE MEL UNGEONS