The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-12-23

would be elected higher than the tallest
trees. "Biowholes." as they were termed
formed and spurted for brief periods. and
innumerable sinks took place, from a
lew yards to many rods In diameter. These
were generally circular and the bottoms
zen below the water level.
iake seventy miles long. with irregu-
Jar shores, was formed where dry land and
timber had stood. Along the margins the
trees as they went down stood deeper and
deeper IN the water until finally the tops
OF the taliest were entirely out OF sight
All this timber OF course died, ana in time
rotted on at the water line, and the sub
merged stumps. and where the water is
not TOO deep the entire trees can still be
seen standing. The lake Ia in places 200
feet deep. For awhile. and until what is
known as the sunk country was filled,
the great river turned backward and fiow-
ed toward its source. The singular land
waves passed across the course of the
river, churning its waters as II with tidal
waves, topplinE some OF the abrupt banks
into the channel and altogether. the time
was one of terror. The trembling was
burg, Pa.
With the causes of this remarkably
long continuance and which is the vital
feature of the case. Professor Shaler
does not attempt TO deal. but in won
derful way he attempts to account for the
sunken region.
The physicist would surely read his ex-
planation several times to be sure that
the printed matter 10 not the result of
some kind OF an optical Illusion. This is
his idea:
The soii was loose, made I'm largely of
vegetable substance and river mud and
this 1arring shook this light matter more
compactly together and the sinking rep
resents this compression.
Rut mater t,td .~o.--i.,
comnact about as soon as laid The Sc
attic tide flats that have been lifted above
the water line by pumping up the mud
and discharging the same through pipes
on given area, are thus made practical
~ solid where It is at least 600 feet to
bedrock The mud was all carried into
the bay by the Duwamish river and in
no essential particular does the silt thus
deposited differ from that carried uulf-
ward by the Mississippi
Heavy FORCES have their foundation on
this newly made ground and the heavy
jar or huge hammers In not materially
more compressing II. The slit over the
New Madrid region IL hardly LEGO feet
deep and this geological professor will
ma trouble to convince the well-informed
that the weight Of such depth OF water
laid soil, compact enough to sustain heavy
forests, can compress 200 feet Thix is
fuliy as Irrational as the physically I'm
possible North American glacier
Docs Prof. shaIer theorize that any
quantity of sedimentary soil. be II 800 or
5000 feet deep. will lie through the CEN
turtles loose like mass OF yeast? is this,
then, his conception OF common physics?
How came his yeasty mass, as dia-
srammcd by the scattered 'biowholes'
and the seventy mile-long lake, to thus
so locally deposit2 Why did not this sink
Ing feature prevail generally over the
wide bottom land OF the shaking region
where sediment must have been the same
and which involved longitudinal extern
sion OF more than thousand miles OF
alluviai soilf The contention that water
laid material that had. for aught we know
to the contrary. lain for thousands OF
years, hundreds of feet In depth, and be
of such loose and yeasty consistency, only
awaiting an earthquake to soldify It,
strikes the writer as a most amazing
proposition. Beyond any question other
earthquakes had also shaken the Missis-
sippi valley.
Tho sunk country" belongs to the same
class of phenomena OF which Lake WASH
ington. Puget Sound and the inside pass
ages to Alaska are illustrations.
What physical relationship is there be-
tween the Olympic range of mountains
and the Straits OF Juan de Fuca and that
peculiar splatchwork OF water known as
the Sound? Prof. Shaier's explanation OF
the phenomena that attended that long
continued jar Is entirely inadequate.
There is hardly question as to there
being fault In the rock structure UNI
der the valley OF the Mississippi. and such
condition. wrought far back In the earlier
geological ages, Is probably the initial de-
termination of such valleys, Under this
valley, and with the New Madrid region
as it's center OF manifestation an area OF
great pressure was developed, which be-
L.. h..
everything crust. The old volcanic vents
In the western ranges OF mountains had
all become clogsed and inert
The immense blanket OF drift deposit or
silt was the factor that so prolonged the
disturbance. When q squirt made its way
20 the surface. the silt closed behind It,
and the force. not strong enough to MAIN
tain continuous action, became intermit-
tent. like a periodically flowing oil we'll
We have no means of knowing the riff
character In the rock structure under the
silt through which the internal force
found exit. Sometimes this force found
the line of least resistance horizontally
along ON bedrock. and thus waved the
surface like the pillows OF a sea. Then Il
was that tho more ciayey and mote adhe-
siye earth was rent into yawning assures
and the trees. fitting at right angles from
their rolling foundations, sometimes inter
locked In their tops
The air was charged with peculiar
haze. though late In the year. II was sui
try and the sun had the appearance OF o
slowing disc OF copper. As the pent-up
force gradually escaped, some Of the crust
sunk correspondinEiy Shattered rock
strata dropped down some distance, henca
the slnkholes and the lake These icra-
tions would be determined by the shat
tered character OF the rock and ioosened
BY the continuous jarring. The drop
would check as soon as the resistance
from below was again greater than the
weight above. The earth's entire crust
rests on a molten and gaseous interior
sea. Had there been no such mass Of
everything sand and gravel on bedrock
through which the sleSmie force had to
make SIS lmpeded way, had the bedrock
been near or on the surface, the earth
shaking might have been OF brief duration.
nm 81 intensified violence AS Il was. the
valley got Il In homeopathic doses
SIN. the expenditure Of the fan force
Was not in the Mississippi valley region.
The shaking and ruEneilng continued into
January 1912 when the end came in the