Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-13
SOME WONDERFUL LAKES
Great Variety of Medicinal Bodies of Water
in This Country.
Trinidad's Famous Pitch Lake and
Kansas Fiery One-Mamoth Caves
Mysterious Black Pool.
From Household Words.

From Household Words
The famous pitch lake, or great bitumen
deposit. of Trinidad is situated about a mile
from the sea, covering an area of about
hundred acres, and looking like dark,
sterile wilderness. Its rugged surface is
perceptibly convex, and is scanned with
creNices, which, strangely enough, are al
ways filled with delicious fresh water. The
center of the lake-the pitch pot" as it is
called-is so soft to engulf anything
placed upon it. Indeed, If person stands
upon the pitch anywhere on the lake the
surface sinks gradually for yards around,
and the intruder presently finds himself
standing in a sort of basin. The lake IS
government property, and is practically in
exhaustible, fresh pitch taking the place of
that removed by the various companies
holding concessions
1t seems a somewhat surprising state
ment to make that on the ice-covered sur
face of a Kansas lake it is possible to
build bonfires by simply breaking the ice
and applying match to the surface of the
water. The flames will shoot up as high as
man, burning brightly for few minutes.
This, however, is what has been possible
for several winters on Doniphan lake,
Kansas. and on one Of its tributary streams.
The fuel for these uncanny fires is natural
gas, which bubbles up through the water
all the year around; but 1t is only during
the very cold winter nights that 1t is thus
temporarily stored under the ice in i'm
mense bubbles or pockets sometimes ten
or twenty yards in extent. By merely
breaking the ice with the point of his skate
and applying match the benighted skater
has in few seconds roaring flame at
which to warm his benumbed fingers.
Near Baku. the center of the Russian Pc
troleum trade, there are to be found vast
natural reservoirs of crude oil, formed by
the overflow from the wells. When the
drill taps the underground springs the oil
PUSHES out with such frghtful velocity as
to flood the surrounding country for con-
siderable distance. and the terribly in
fiammable stuff settles in every depression.
The application of torch to one of these
petroleum lakes would cause a fearful ex-
plOsion, and their continued presence is a
menace to the community.
At one of the towns in the Puniaub there
are situated number of small lakes, re-
puted to contain large sums of money.
There IS a fair held annually at this town
in the month Of February, and 1t is the
tom of the pilgrims. instead of giving their
money offerings direct to the priests, to
bury them IN the mud of the lakes, where
they take their sacred annual bath. The
poor priests have to enter the water after
ward and recover all they can by cropping
and diving in a most undignifed fashion.
Rumor hath it that they would very much
Ike to see this irritating custom abolished,
because there can be no doubt that they
fail to find considerable percentage of the
money.
I.ough Neagh in ireland, is said to pos
SeSS petrlfying qualities, and several lakes
in the United States are reputed to have
this strange characteristic in much more
marked degree, wooden figures and cary
ings being converted to, or anyhow coated
with, stone by less than a months INNER
sion in the chilly waters There is gloomy
pool in the receSSeS of the Mammoth Cave
of Kentucky, the unfathomable waters of
which are jet black in color, and harbor
weird fish which possess no eyes, these hav-
ing apparently become atrophied in obedi
ence to an memorable law Of nature.
America boasts of several more or less
well-knoWn medicinal lakes, but of these
Medical lake" near Spokane Falls, is,
perhaps, the most remarkable. The lake
covers q n area of over 1000 acres, and is
encircled by low wooded hills. The waters
are said to hold in solution salts of sodium,
potassium lithium, calcium, magnesium, iron
and several other minerals. A great va
riety of ailments are reported to have been
cured by bathing in the lake, chief among
them being rheuma tism and certain skin
diseases. One of the properties of the
water is that it forms lather whenever it
is violently agitated or rubbed quickly on
the hands or the surface of the body No
fish or other living thing can be found with
In the waters, which are rather muddy and
repulsive in appearance. The go-ahead
Yankee sees money in the curative powers
of the water. and numerous factories have
been established for evaporating the water
and packing the salts obtained. Within a
very short time considerable settlement
has sprung up, and hotels are being erected
to cater for the streams of inyalds who are
expected to flock to the lake