Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-07-17

seethed. And suddenly, with report
louder than a hundred cannon, the
wall of the crater broke, and resist
less deluge of fire rolled like au
avalanche down the valley. blowing
channel fifty feet deep in the bea-
rock at its outlet, moving down giant
pines as If they had been straws,
sweeping alone enormous boulders
like driftwood, and spreading death
and eternal desolation for leagues
around.
How the Lava Cooled.
The process of cooling begins very
quickly and goes on rapidly. A shell
will begin to form within fortnight.
So here is the phenomenon of a river
running inside a stone conduit of its
own making. The shell becomes hard
long before it is cool enough to walk
upon: and within the fiery food pours
along
A great deal of gas md steam is
imprisoned in the molten fiow Some
times it only makes huge bubbles,
stone. Some of these bubbles, 10 feet
in diameter, are curious, arched
caves, in which a whole party might
encamp. But if the volume of gas be
too great, terrific explosions occur;
and liz places the top of the flow for
a hundred acres is rent into a mil
lion fragments, so sharp pointed that
no creature can cross them.
The chief river of stone from this
crater is fifty-seven miles long, and
its black, unmoving flood covers some
400 square miles, making, turn to
of the San Jose. At the bend IL
actually ran a couple of miles up hill,
in its reluctance to turn a corner.
Near the elbow in the stone river
the Pueblo Indians dwelt for unknown
ages in this part of New Mexico. A
few miles from Cebollita were some
small farm houses of the prehistoric
Pueblos in the pretty valley as it then
existed. The proof of this is that ID
current of the stone river ran directly
through one of these houses. There
it stands to this day, that ancient
house long roofess, but with strong
walls still; and through a gap in them
and over the floor lies the froze,
black tide.
There are two islands in this
peculiar river, and as peculiar as it
self. Instead or rising above the
flood they are below it--lonely parks
with black lava, which stands twenty
feet above the level. The largest of
these insular parks contains 10000
acres.
The flow of this stone river runs for
several miles beside the track of the
Atlantic and Pacific railway, just wes4
of McCarty, and comes to an abrup
end in a pretty meadow there. The
small blush San Jose creek rises IN
a cold spring, which pours forth from
a cave in the lava. The creek eyi-
IDENTIFY belonged in the valley before
the lava came, and despite that fearful
invasion of fire it still holds its own.
For miles it runs through the great
black river of stone, now in winding
channels, and again heard but unseen
in long caves under the lava.
There is also in this part of the
flow a dozen or more nearly circular
basins, some filled with water from
the brook, and a favorite breeding
place for wild ducks.
The widest and most interesting
part of this stone river is near It's
head. Everywhere it keeps its OH
waves and its very eddies, frozen into
enduring rock. There are successive
"slumps" where the solid rock De
meath seems to have dropped out Of
sight, and when the fiery river cooled
it dropped, too. but only in places.
The molten lava all ran out from the
middle part of the conduit, and finally
the shell broke down in spots. What
a conduit 1t must have been! In the
sink holes bears and other wild beasts
have their dens.
A Natural Refrigerator.
|. In the largest of these sinks, near