Part 9

Sometimes a cave may be formed by a sinking of the floor, leaving the arched top supporting itself, but whatever the cause and wherever caves are found, I never read of any but lead to subterranean rivers of great purity and coolness of water, nearly all the waters of which are credited with blind fish. Where did the fish originate? The stalagmites and stalactites tell of the copious influence of water.

What is the source of these cave rivers? Are they from soakage of rainfalls and do they have any dry season?

XII.

ARTESIAN WELLS.

Here is a subject that is worthy the attention of settlers in our arid and apparently desert regions of country. We are told that the source of an artesian well is from fountains of water gathered and stored in higher lands that run through different strata of rocks till they reach the valleys, and when the boring reaches down to these strata the water naturally comes up toward the height of the fountain it started from. Would it not be a sensible inquiry to make as to where the supply came from to furnish the water in the higher lands? That the accepted theory of supply to artesian wells comes from some higher point is not correct can be demonstrated on the prairies, where no higher land is in sight.

A very good test occurred some years ago at the Hamilton mine, adjoining the great Chapin mine, in Wisconsin. It became almost impossible to work the mine on account of the great influx of water.

Not much more than a half mile away was a lake that was charged with producing this annoying flow.

At the time of a temporary abandonment, the writer disputed this solution, and a survey was proposed to determine the level in the lake and mine, which showed the water in the mine eleven feet the lowest. To overcome this encroachment of water, an ingenious device was adopted by building a chimney over the point of inflow to the height of water level and stopping at the bottom; when completed allowed to fill.

When its true level was reached the rest of the mine was dry some distance above. It is doubtful if any place on the Earth will not respond with a flow of water within a mile in depth and rarely half that distance will need to be bored.

In the Mojave desert it is claimed a depth of 200 feet and often less gets a good flow of water. What sends it up and whence its source? In Michigan, Wisconsin, and many other adjacent States, a depth of 100 or 200 feet will produce large flowing wells. Where does this universal supply come from and why unchanged by wet or dry seasons? The flow from Lake Superior is frequently larger in the dry season of August than in the wet season of spring.

If there is no unfailing supply of water in the Earth, where does the influence come from to produce an Oasis in a desert?

If artesian wells are bored in our arid and now almost worthless lands, wherever a fountain of water is tapped will be an Oasis around which the settler can produce fabulous wealth of crops and obtain forage for live stock. The expense of boring wells will be largely compensated by cheapness of land and bountiful results in vegetation.

XIII.

OASES.

These green spots in the great deserts are the counterparts of Islands in the oceans.

If not thrown up and fed by water upheaval, how are they produced? Are they volcanic? The Oasis of Ammonium, or Siwah, six miles long and eight wide, contains the ruins of the famous temple and oracle of Ammon, visited by Alexander the Great, and celebrated for the fountain of the Sun, whose waters are warm at morning and evening, and cold at noon.

There are several oases not long distances west of the Nile in the Great Desert. The ancients considered them as Islands in a Sea of Sand, but they are really elevated lakes, although not manifesting themselves much at the surface, but underlying so closely as to render the climate too unhealthy to live in during the summer and autumn, being of a swampy character, and yet very productive in winter and spring. Where do these waters soak in to produce such spots in the deserts?

XIV.

THINGS THAT PUZZLE US.

It is frequently a query how the distribution of fish is so general even in the most obscure lakes and springs rising and running from points so isolated as to apparently preclude such specimens from getting there. It seems strange that some species would exist at the head of a stream and not inhabit it throughout. Seas and lakes may, and do exist, without any visible outlets to the ocean, and yet are plentifully supplied with varieties of fish. Now what may be a rational explanation of how they got there. It cannot seem right to say that they originally existed in an adjacent sea or the nearest approach to the ocean, as they are not found in any adjacent waters and are entirely peculiar to their locality, having no neighbors akin. It does not seem as if such would be the case if they became isolated by some remote upheaval and change of surrounding Earth’s surface, as this would only divide up the family and spread the species like immigration from the eastern to the western states.

As asked before, where do these blind fish come from in caves where streams do not seem to have any connection with surface waters? Where do the many specimens come from in the island lakes all over the world? To all these questions there seems a simple answer when we accept the idea that the center of the Earth is the womb that is developing and sending out through every pore, seam, crevice and crack some new seed and form of life to develop a new and strange existence to us on the outside.

It is a Scriptural idea that “We are born of water.”

Creatures that have their inception in the bowels of the Earth cast their eggs as the fish and reptile spawn in our rivers. These eggs or spawn or seeds of life in whatever form are taken in the currents that course through the different strata of the earth by centrifugal force and pressure, taking almost any amount of time in their hermetically sealed transit before they reach an atmosphere in which to develop into a new existence. Any lake, spring, or fountain of water that is a living stream fed by the inexhaustible sources within, may have from that varied storehouse and laboratory of nature any specimen of fish, scale, skin, shell or reptile of any form, that no adjoining or neighboring water may develop.

The spawn or egg may be destroyed on its outward passage or held back by influences preventing its maturity; or landed on the surface under unfavorable conditions of climate, air, and properties in the water.

Why do shad not exist anywhere in similar coast waters? Where do they come from and is the Gulf Stream to be credited with their origin? Where do the different schools of blue fish, mackerel, herring and numerous other fish find their headquarters to breed, and why after seeking other waters for a season, return to some place that seems to be their “sweet home”?

Was Seth Green the pioneer in transportation of spawn to distant waters for their incubation? It is more than likely that he was not; with all credit due to the great service his genius has rendered.

What is said of the dissemination of fish, shells, and reptiles may be consistently said of vegetation.

The earth is filled with the seed of every plant and tree and shrub that ever sprang into life in any place, clime or time. Dig to whatever depth you will, the substance you throw out, whether earth or stone, when exposed to the air, will produce some growth of vegetation. Frequently something entirely new and different from the surrounding vegetation. To assume that streams, winds, and birds carry and distribute all the seeds to their different localities where found in an isolated condition, is too much for human credulity. On the tops of mountains, where streams do not run uphill on the surface, where the birds seldom fly, and on spaces impossible for seeds to be carried by winds, you find species peculiar to their altitude, atmosphere and soil.