The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-07-16
MYSTERIOUS CRATER LAKE.
II Is THE DEEPEST FRESH WATER
on THIS CONTINENT.


Fish - Conditions Are Favorable.
No Fish Have Ever Been known 10
Exist There.
From the Philadelphia Times.
| Washington. July 4.-The United States
| fsh commission sends an expedition this
/ week 10 investigate the famous Crater
/ lake in Oregon. This is the deepest body
/ OF fresh water in America. only one lake
| in the world is deeper-namely, Baikal,
/ which exceeds 1t in depth by about 400
/ feet. Until recently it was asserted that
/ Crater lake was bottomless. but soundings
| have proved that its greatest depth is 1000
/ feet. IL is 1--WE miles in diameter, nearly
| circular. and occupies the crater of an
| extinct volcano.
Now, no fish have ever been known to
/ exist in Crater lake. Not long ago
/ request that it be stocked with trout was
/ sent 10 Washington by the Mazamas,
/ who are club of mountain climbers
| having headquarters at Portland. Maza-
/ ma is the Indian name for mountain goat.
/ These climbers are anxious to angle in
/ the extinct crater, and the government
| experts are going to find out whether or
not such thing is practicable. 1t is
/
! but that would be of no use unless there
is food for them there. Trials Will be
made for the purpose of ascertain!ng
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 towing
| small nets Of gauze along the surface of
! the water. The water Will flow throGgh
| the gauze, which will catch all the ami
| malculaes that come in its way. The
| quantity of the latter secured in a given
| number of minutes or hours Will be an
| accurate measure of the amount of hsn
| food present They will be bottled and
! preserved in fOrmaline for subsequent eN-
! animation by a specialist, who viii deter
mine the species represented. Chiefly they
will be little shrimps and other smali
| crus taceanS, and there will be some in
sects also. 1t will be necessary to make
| the toWings Of different hours to the day,
because some crustaceans swim pear the
| surface only in the morning, others at
midday, and Others yet in the evening.
Shady areas as well as sunny ones must
be sought for various species
a most interesting series Of expert
ments will be made for the purpose of as
certaining the temperature of the water
at variou depths. No temperature obser-
vatiOns have even been taken in fresh
water nearly so far down. With this
end in view, an equipment of self-regis-
tering thermometers and supplementary
apparatus will be taken along by the ex-
| petition. The thermometers will be let
down by means Of sounding lines. There
are very few places in the
is less than 1000 feet, though it
shoals off somewhat in the southwest
part One line of soundings registered
over 1900 feet for distance of two miles.
These depths are unapproachable by any
other lake in the western hemisphere.
No wonder then, that Crater lake was
supposed to be bottomless. However the
| truth is that all lakes over $50 feet deep
POSSESSES a similar reputation. Any body
| of water that is deeper than the length
of the longest fishing line is sure to lack
a bottom in the popular belief. A first
rate example of this sort of delusion is
afforded by Payette lake, in Idaho. 1t
was formerly imagined to be bottomless,
and later its depth was officially stated at
| 1900 feet Recent investigation proves that
its greatest depth is 305 feet. There are
no data on which to base a guess as to the
/ bottom temperature of Crater lake, but
the superstition is that it will be very little
! above freezing. The temperature of the
| ocean depths remains at about forty de-
| grees Fahrenheit all the year round, even
! in the tropics Nevertheless, some volcanic
heat may yet remain to warm the waters
| of Crater lake.
Biologists regard Crater lake as quite
a wonderful phenomenon. Its surface is
| 6,329 feet above sea level. 1t is situated
seventy-five miles east of Rogue river val
! ley, through which the Oregon and Cali
fornia railroad passes and may be reach
| ed by a picturesque mountain road. 1t is
| in the midst of one of the most attractive
! geological fields in the world. Lying in the
summit of the Cascade range, about mid
way between Mount Shasta and Mount
! Hood, it is especially remarka BILE on ac-
count of its beauty and the grandeur Of
! its encircling cliffs This mountain summit
/ is a broad platform topped by numerous
! volcanoes. One of these volcanoes, Red
! Cone, takes its name from the color of
the. debris with which IL is covered Pis-
D Sraer m q ! oct Dha t.a lot,
/ is surmounted by a hopper-shaped crater
several hundred feet across and of great
depth.
| northwest shore of Crater lake. The color
! of the latter is ultramarine, bordered by
/ turquoise along the shores. Set in. ma
! jesuc cliffs, il is a natural jewel. Beau
| tiful and attractive as 1t is IL serves bat
/ to conceal the greater wonder-namely
/ the stupendous pit or basin in which il
! is contained. Although there are thous-
! ands of craters in this country, there j.
! but one great one, and that contains
| Crater lake. The diameter of the TOP Of
! the pit is nearly six miles, and its depth
| is 1000 feet It's bottom Is lower than the
| foot of the Cascade range, and is approx
! imately a plain, judging from the sound
| ings. To the westward a mountain peak
rises from the bottom, its top forming
| Wizard Island.
| Wizard Island IS itself an extinct vol
| cano. 1t is surmounted by q cinder cone
| and in its top is a crater $50 feet deep
I 1t is thought tnat the SnOdling of the lake
| in it's southwestern part is due to lava
/ poured out by this small but once ener-
/ getic volcano. The latter, which is sim
| ply pile of lava $500 feet in hight, was
/ certainly active only few centuries ago
! But there was a time when there was
! neither pit nor lake, and instead might
! have been seen a single enormous cone
/ towering into the sky like Shasta or
/ Hood and forming a prominent peak of
/ the range Some tremendous geologic
catastrophe broke off the top of the cone
! Probably 1t will always remain mystery
| how this huge mountain, nearly six miles
| in diameter and a mile higher than at
present, was removed, and in what man
ner the pit now occupied by Crater lake
| was produced.
! 1t might be imagined that the top of the
/ mountain was blown off, but biologists do
| not believe that this was the case The
| proba bility is that the molten entrails of
! the giant volcano found an outlet near its
| base and escaped there. Thus the TOP sank
in, and the final eruptive effort of the
| mountain is represented by the cinder
| cone whose top is called Wizard Island
Crater lake has no visible outlet, but it is
| thought that there is a subterranean es-
"a ne for some of the water. To the north