The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1897-05-13
A WONDERFUL HoLE.
Torrents Of Sea water Have Gone Into 1t
In Years Past.

In 1earS PaSGs
One is reminded of the pretty ia
BILE about Arethusa and Alpheus by
a curious story in Casters Maya
zine. But in lie ancient narrative
it was fresh water river into which
the pursuing lover was changed, and
the fountain which represents the
metamorphosed nymph has been
identified, while in the less romantic
tale now told a salt water stream
disappears into hole in the ground,
and all the rest is a profound mys
terry.
On the coast of the Greek island
of Cephalonia, near the town of Ar
gostoli, there are two little fumes.
or canals, leading inland from the
sea to the distance Of about 100 feet,
and then discharging their contents
into rudely excavated pits, through
whose badly assured, rocky bot
toms the water Immediately loses
itself. At least as long ago as 1885
a mill was run by power from one
of these fumes, and a second mill
was built beside and operated by
the other a little while afterward.
The mills themselves are now in
ruins, but the flow continues This
remarkable state of things has ex-
listed for over go years and very like
~ for century.
One cannot help asking in amaze
ment where all that water goes to.
The Messrs. Crosby, who furnish the
account which Casters prints, esti-
mate that the flow in each channel
amounts to !, 900 cubic feet per min
ute, or 8, 900, 900 cubic feet per day
in both. Two smaller passages of
a similar character have been OBJ
served in the same neighborhood,
and it is added that along the shore,
Eat all points between the two mills
and for an unknown distance beyond
each, the water is everywhere perco-
lating through cracks and assures
of the limestone and sinking into
the earth. The openings in the sea
bottom are no doubt mainly closed
by weeds and gravel. Yet no incon-
siderable amount of water must find
it's way to these mysterious depths
through such an extent of beach,
lying on a rock that is practically as
porous as a sieve. 1t is difficult to
decide which is the greater marvel,
the sea mills themselves or the fact
that they have remained practically
unkn own to the scientific world up
to the present day, although de-
scribed by several authors, men
toned in the guidebooks and visited
by admirals, generals, bishops and
distinguished civilians.
Almost the only explanation hith-
erto offered assumes that evapora-
ton goes on rapidly in some subter-
ranean cavern and thus disposes of
the water. But, as 1T is admitted
that the remaining salt from the
two mill streams alone would
amount to 48, 900 cubic feet a year,
it is hard to understand why the
subterranean cavern-if there be
one-does not fill up.
The Messrs. Crosby offer a differ
ent hypothesis. They ask the read
er to imagine two great assures de-
scending into the earth and meeting
below, like the sides of a letter v or
~. Then they suggest that perhaps
one arm is shorter than the other,
and that there is a long, very gently
rising passage leading from the bot
tom Of one to the bottom of the 9th
er, so that the subterranean heat
can get a good chance to act on any
stream passing through it. Tt then
becomes easy to suppose that cold
current of sea water comes down
through one branch of the system
and is forced upward through the
other by thermal influences.
The rocky island of Cephalonia,
like some of its neighbors, betrays
the effect of earthquakes innumer-
able in times past, Astounding in
fractures and faults, caverns and
subterranean rivers. None of the
springs on Cephalonia contain any
large quantity of salt, however, and
it is difficult to regard any Of them
as the outflow Of the flood which
disappears at Argostoli. But it is
possible that, as Alpheus is said to
have done, it takes a dive beneath
the sea and comes up on some faroff
island.