The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1896-10-15
CRATER LAKE.
The Deepest Body of Fresh Water
in America.
Some Curious Facts About This
Oregon Wonder.

Crater Lake, in Oregon, is the
deepest body of fresh water in Amer
ica. Only one lake in the world is
deeper, namely, Baikal, which exceeds
it in depth by about 400 feet. Until
recently it was asserted that Crater
Lake was bottomlcss, but soundings
have proved that its greatest depth is
1000 feet. 1t is five miles in diam
eter, nearly circular, and occupies the
crater of an extinct volcano.
No fish have ever been known to ex-
list in Crater Lake. Not long ago a
request that it be stocked with trout
was sent to Washington by the Maza-
mas, who are club of mountain
| climbers, having headquarters at
Portland. Mazama is the Indian name
for mountain goat. The climbers are
anxious to angle in the extinct crater,
and the government experts are going
to find out whether or not such a
thing is practicable. 1t is easy enough
to put trout into the water, but that
would be of no use unless there is
food for them there. Trials will b e
made by an expedition, for the pur-
pose of ascertaining how much food
there is and whether or not it is of a
kind suitable for speckled beauties to
browse upon.
This will be accomplished by tow
ing small nets of gauze along the sur
face of the water. The water will
flow through the gauze, Which will
catch all the animalcule that come in
its way. The quantity of the latter
secured in given number of minutes
or hours will be an accurate measure
of the amount of fish food present.
They will be bottled and preserved in
formaline for subsequent examination
by a specialist who will determine the
species represented. Chiefly they
will be little shrimps and other small
crustaceans, and there will be some in
sects also. 1t will be necessary to
make the towings at different hours OF
the day, because some crustaceans
swim near the surface only in the
morning, others at midday, and Others
yet in the evening. Shady areas as
we'll as sunny ones must be sought for
various species.
A most interesting series of expert
ments will be made for the purpose
of ascertaining the temperature of the
water at various depths. No temper
ature observations have ever been
taken in fresh water nearly so fal
down. With this end in view. an
equipment of self-registering ther-
mometers and supplementary appar.
atus will be taken and will be LEI
down by means of sounding lines.
There are very few places in the en-
tire lake where the depth is less than
1000 feet, though it shoals off some
what in the southwest part. One line
of soundings registered over 1,90(
feet for distance of two miles. These
depths are unapproached by any other
lake in the western hemisphere.
No wonder, then, that Crater Lake
was supposed to be bottomless. How
ever the truth is that all lakes ovel
$50 feet deep possess similar repu
tation. Any body of water that il
deeper than the length of the Longest
feeling line is sure to lack a bottom il
the popular belief. A first-rate ex-
ample of this sort of delusion is af.
fordec by Payette Lake in Idaho. il
was formerly imagined to be bottom
less. and later its depth was officially
stated to be 2, 600 feet. Recent in
vestigation proves that its greatest
depth is 305 feet. There are no dats
on which to base guess as to the
bottom temperature of Crater Lake,
but the supposition is that it will be
very little abere freezing. The tenn
perature of the ocean depths remains
at about forty degrees Fahrenheit all
the year round, even in the tropics.
Nevertheless, some volcanic heat may
yet remain to warm the waters OF
Crater Lake. ST. Louis lobe-Demo-
crat.