The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-27
.OF NO VALUE BUT
 CREATES INTEREST Washington AbOunds With
 Many Scientists FIND ANCIENT LAKE Make Many Discoveries, Especially in West, of Prehistoric Earth For
 nations, Disappearing Rivers
 and Other Unique Things
FIND ANCIENT LAKE

Washington, March 26.-(Specal.l The scientific branches of the government service have a distinct reputation for making diseoveres which are of little or no value. but which with very few ex- captions are of absorbing interest. Tho greatest virtue about the government scientist is that he Is so thoroughly wrapped up in his investigation that whenever he gets started on the right track he will pursue 1t to the end.
 It Is easy to distinguish a government scientist in Washington. They walk along the public streets with one foot in the gutter. munchng graham crackers and are so deeply absorbed in their investlya- tions that they are as likely to ask a cigar stand keeper for a nematode as For what they really want They pay not the slightest attnetion 10 things ordinary ana mediate chiefly on things scientific, Washington is full of them. The depart- ment of agriculture harbors more of them. perhaps, than any other of the govern ment departments. There the scientists flourish in magnificent numbers, but there are many of their species in the other branches of the service. They are invet- crate takers of shop, and let the strangera who is ignorant of the ramifi- cations of science beware of these people, for they can amputate an arm with their | discourse if their victim Is unable to answer in kind.
 The geological survey Is branch of tho ! service in which the scientists abound. While the department of agriculture scien- fiat d ha gf leaf. or to explore the surface of a seed the geological survey scientist revels in pebbles and rocks,
 You have but to show him a lapidary fragment and he will trace you the lineage of the thing; he will name you names of which you have not the remotest compre- hension, but which roll off his tongue so glibly that you would not dare to expose your ignorance by allowing perpexity or confusion to appear in your face.
 This latter sort makes discoveries which are more than interesting to the uni- initiated. Beyond a rather active interest in the fact that a seed planted will under favorable conditions produce plant which is 50 per cent as excellent as that depicted on the seed package, the layman finds little to hold his attention in seeds. There is practically no historical interest connected with seeds. with the possible exception of the industrious mustard seed which has made quite name for itself.
 Rocks, however, are somewhat more of interest. The geological survey, however, goes further than the technical analysis of rocks. It investigates mountains and formations of the earth on a Garganttian scale.
 Perhaps the most interesting discovery
 
 that of the bed of 8 prehistoric lake in New Mexico. The Estancia valley, a sess tile indentation in the earth's surface, which is inhabited and cultivated by voters is said by the surveyors to have once been the receptacle of a great lake.
 The present inhabitants are in blssful ignorance of the fact and have been ever since they have lived there. and II is fairly safe 10 say that none will migrate as consequence of the discovery
 The valley Is 35 miles long and 23 miles wide SO the lake was quite a good sized body of water. If the lake should de- termine to come back to it's old home to sperd vacation the prosperous town of Estanca and that of Willard would hs buried beneath hundred feet of water.
 shore formations of a peculiar charac- ter and deposits of sediment in the bottom of the valley form the basis of the theory that a lake formerly existed there. Tho geoiogists of the government, have made discoveries at the bottom of the valley and in the mountains at points where 1t Is certain the shore line of the lake ex- isted, from which they deduce that the entire valley was at one time inundated
 Also it is the belief that the lake was salt. This deduction is drawn not only from the nature of deposits discovered, but from the topography of the embracing hills. There seems to have been no outlet ff. fl.a laIr nd han ia fhe ra body of water becomes salt. The Great Salt Lake in Utah has no outlet The lake in the E.stancia valley must have been in- nnitely older than the Great Salt Lahs and in time the latter will also disappear In fact it Is receding rapidly Within the memory of the present inhabitants of the Great Salt Lake basin that body of brine has receded half a mile. Garfield Beach. which was popular resort not long ago. Is now high and dry and inland from .he present beach, Saltair.
 There are similar instances of lost lakes in the west, of which Lake Bonneville is the most notable example. The inhabi- tants of Utah. in which the lake at one time existed have actually seen Lake Bon- neville dry up and disappear
 There is a valley in Illinois. not far from Chicago. which was at one time the basin of a vast lake. 1t is believed. This lake was probably one of the Great I.alSea and was connected with Lake Michigan It was probably drained by the Mississippi river. Certainly there is little trace of N now except for geological formations bue these mean as much to the government scientists as an open book does to the layman.