The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1901-05-01
A WONDERFUL HOLE.
TORRENTS of Sea water Have Gone into I
In YeRrs Pat.

In IeRrs Past.
One is reminded of the pretty ia
BILE about Arethusa and Alpheus by
n curious story in Cassier's MaRa-
zinc. But in the ancient narrative
it was a fresh water river into which
the pursuing lover was changed, and
the fountain which represents tho
metamorphosed nynph has been
identified, while in the loss romantic
tale now told salt water stream
disappears into n hole in the ground,
and all the rest is profound 1pys'
terry.
On the coast of the Greek island
of Cophalonia, near tho 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 tissured, rocky bot
toms the water Immediately loses
itself\ At least as long ago as 1885
IL mill was run by power from one
of these fumes, and q second mill
was built beside and operated by
tho other n little whilo afterward.
Tho mills themselves are now in
ruins, but the flow continues, This
remarkable state of things has OK,
listed for over 60 years and very like
ly for century.
One cannot help asking in amaze
ment where all that water goes to.
Tho Messrs. Crosby, who furnish the
account which Cassier's prints, esti-
mate that tho flow in each channel
amounts to 1000 cubic feet per min
ute, or 3, 100000 cubic feet per day
in both. Two smaller passages of
n similar character have been OBJ
served in tho same neighborhood,
and it is added that along the shore,
lat all points between tho two mills
and for an unknown distance beyond
each, tho water is everywhere perco-
lating through cracks and hssures
of tho limestone and sinking into
tho earth. Tho 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 extont of beach,
lying on n rock that is practically as
porous as siovo. 1t is difficult to
decide which is tho greater marvel,
tho 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
tho wator. But, as it is admitted
that tho remaining salt from the
two mill streams alone would
amount to 4S, 600 cubic feet year,
it is hard to understand why tho
subterrnnoan cavern-if there be
ono-does not fill up.
Tho Messrs. Crosby offer differ.
ont hypothesis. They ask the read
or to imagine two great fissures de-
scending into tho earth and meeting
below, like tho sides of letter v or
u. Then thoy suggest that perhaps
ono arm is shorter than the other,
and that there is long, very gently
rising passage leading from the bot
tom of one to tho bottom of the 9th
or, SO that tho subterranean heat
can got good chance to aot on any
stream passing through 1t. 1t then
becomes easy to suppose that cold
current of sea water comes down
through one branch of tho syHtem
and is forced upward through the
other by thermal influences.
The rocky island of Cephalonia,
like some of it's neighbors, betrays
tho effect of earthquakes innumer-
able in times past, abounding in
fractures and faults, caVerng and
subterranean rivers Mono 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 1t Is
possible that, as Alpheus is said 20
have done, it takes dive beneath
tho sea and comes up ON some faroR
island.