The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1908-11-13
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Some Remarkable TrickS of Thu
Weird World --A-


The other day the sea-clin near
Lyme Regis. In Dorsetshire. suddenly
turned itself into a pretty good imita-
tion OF volcano. greatly 10 the alarm
or the people living nearby.
The cause was the spontaneous com.
bustion OF certain infiammable materi-
al, and one result was that a large sec.
ton OF the cliff tumbled into the sea
with most tremendous crash.
Far away In the Arctic. on the north.
ernmost coast OF British North Ameri.
ca, similar sham volcano in working
on an enormous scale. A huge cliff.
lying to the east OF Cape Bathurst, is
AL ablaze for distance OF over 20
miles.
The face OF the clffs is scanned with
Ignite, and this appears TO have been
burning for centuries. How IL took
fire, or when. no one knows, or ever
VIII know. And there It goes on blaz-
ing year after year, covering the ever
lasting Ice with pail OF smoke and
cinders
After years OF effort II is now pos
sible to predict the weather. with toll.
cradle accuracy, for day ahead. But
as for fore-telling what the earth her
self Will do the next minute, you
might as well attempt to predict where
a flash OF lightning will strike. The
forces at work below the earths crust
seem 10 take an almost impish delight
in playing the maddest pranks, some
OF which ere totally unexplainable.
Some are harmless. some destruc-
tive beyond measure. OF the latter,
the most extraordinary example on
record is undoubtedly the destruction
OF St. Pierre
Mont Pelee exploded. Such a thing
has happened before. Volcanoes not
unfrequently blow their heads off. But
why that awful cloud Of white. hot
dust should have rushed straight down
upon st. Pierre. killing 10000 people
in less than two minutes. is not SO
easily explainable. The disaster was
so local that Morne Rouge. the suburb
on the hills close above. escaped com
paratively unchanged
Lake Vernagther, a beautiful sheet
OF water, the pride of a valley in the
Tyrol vanished in a night. Next
morning the bed was bare mud. There
was no earthquake on this occasion.
The lake quietly disappeared as a bath
empties when the plug is pulled out
Speaking OF Swiss lakes recalls to
mind the extraordinary tidal" waves
OF Lake Geneva. They are called
tidal for want OF a better name At
uncertain intervals the lake heaves
itself up. and rises five to six feet in
a few seconds. Why or wherefore, no
one knows.
Nor can any one tell what is hap
pening in the Caspian Sea For years
past its waters have been falling. and
IL has been supposed that the great
inland sea was gradually drying up.
Recent sOundings revealed the aston
fishing fact that the'Caspian Is at pres
ent actually deeper than il was a cen
fury ago. There is only one possible
hypothesis. The bottom of the sea
must be dropping out.
In 1906 petroleum was struck near
the town Of Dalton, in Texas Believ-
ing that an oil deposit actually under
lay the town. trial boring was made
just outside the city.
The result was alarming. At a
depth Of $50 feet the drill points fell
into what was evidently a gigantic
subterranean cave. of which soundings
failed to reach the bottom.
Presently the earth began TO fall
away. and drop into the fearful abyss.
A huge pit appeared. which constantly
extended. Then all the water in the
town reservoir poured away, leaving
not one drop in the place
Some OF those natural phenomena
are quite beyond explanation. In the
northern part of Polk county. Wiscon-
sin. there are five big holes in the
ground. natural wells. varying between
120 feet and 160 feet deep.
Whenever rain is coming these
wells 40 crazy. A current Of air comes
roaring out, with a sound that can be
heard nearly half mile away. The
air is sometimes so hot that II will
boil kettle. and. again, so cold that
II will freeze water.