The first witness from the interior will be the Gulf Stream, the most
phenomenal stream of water known to the Earth. This great outlet,
authorities tell us, is the result of waters rushing around from the
Caribbean Sea through the Gulf of Mexico and out through the Strait of
Florida, thus giving force enough to be manifest for more than three
thousand miles to the coast of Ireland to give her the climate that
christened her the Emerald Isle; from Ireland and the British Isles,
its influence is felt to the coast of Norway.
The water is much warmer than at other points after leaving the Bahamas
with different marine conditions, such as containing no jelly fish,
or showing sparkling waters by night and being always avoided by the
whales and other tenants that are in adjoining waters. It is also
claimed by those who have sailed many times through it that the color
of the water is so different as to be quickly noticeable as vessels
enter the Stream. How such a stream can originate with such force in
a reservoir like the Atlantic, connected around through the Caribbean
Sea and returning to itself, is as obscure to the writer’s mind as to
how a man can succeed in lifting himself in a bushel basket. A man that
can adopt this conclusion ought to apply his energies to developing a
machine for perpetual motion.
The Gulf Stream is, no doubt, an enormous spring tainted with sulphur,
like many of the springs in Florida and up the coast as far as
Charleston, whose waters are warmed from the same influence as the
Gulf Stream, from passing up through a deep strata heated by volcanic
influences so common in Central America. Its sulphurous taint will
account for the absence of whales and jelly fish in its waters, in
which waters of similar nature fish are never found. This sulphurous
condition may account for the stormy features that prevail along its
course. It may be claimed that the waters would smell of sulphur so as
to be detected, but such is not necessarily the case; from springs in
Florida that flow strong sulphurous water, many visitors will not drink
at the spring, but after aërating an hour, it will be drank at hotel
tables and from water urns without a suspicion of its being sulphurous.
The contact with salt water at the great depth from which the Stream
originates diminishes any odor before reaching the surface and quite
likely imparts the noticeable change in color. The deep-sea soundings
off the coast of Bahama is another reason that the Stream originates
there. It is claimed to be almost impossible at the commencement of the
stream to get reliable soundings, as evidently sounding leads would be
sensibly affected by the powerful current of water flowing outward.
The next evidence offered is, where does the enormous amount of water
come from to supply our lake systems? Nearly all of the large lakes
of the world are located in the highest parts. Lake Geneva 1,226 feet
above the sea level, receives the muddy waters of the Rhone, but has
so much other inflow as a spring as to discharge its waters blue and
clear. Lake Constance is 1,290 feet above the sea and 912 feet deep;
the Rhine rising at an elevation of 7,600 feet enters this lake. In
1770, the waters rose in one hour twenty feet above ordinary limit. It
is said to contain twenty-five species of fish, including salmon. Onega
and Ladoga are high from sea levels, and by canal, connect with some
of the headwaters of the Volga. Titicaca, 12,800 feet above the sea,
720 feet deep near the shore, and probably very deep in the middle,
contains many islands and abounds in remains of Peruvian architecture.
Superior, 627 feet above the sea and mean depth about 1,000 feet, never
freezing over except about the shores, and presents a temperature of
about 45 degrees.
These are only a few in different countries to which the position is
universal, for both great bodies of fresh water as well as small ones,
as the general impression with people is that lakes are usually in low
lands, while the opposite is the true state.
How few people in this country ever thought of our great internal
seas of fresh water, Superior, Huron, Michigan, and Ontario, being on
the highest lands between the ocean and the Rocky Mountains, yet such
is the case. From these great fountains flow the waters that plunge
down Niagara Falls, while a larger portion, it is thought, has a
subterranean outlet through Lake Ontario, and uniting with the Niagara
current to form the St. Lawrence.
Whence come these waters into those great lakes? They have no important
rivers flowing in, and their waters are frequently highest in August
and September when the country is commonly suffering by drouth. If the
supply were rain water, this whole surface would freeze, but spring
water is exempt until well exposed to the air for some time. The lands
about Lake Superior rise quite abruptly, and as you ascend the hills,
and riding from Ashland to Duluth, will see hundreds of small lakes,
and from Two Harbors north as you ascend for fifty miles you see the
same state of things till you come to the divide within less than 100
miles, when the waters go west into the Mississippi valley and north
to Hudson Bay, and east and south to the Atlantic. Are these lakes
supplied with rain and snows? If so, where does the water collect, and
how does it get into this elevation? A subterranean river is supposed
to run between Superior and Ontario, on account of similar fish being
caught in each lake at particular seasons, but absent in Ontario at
other times.
The lakes named are only mentioned for their importance; we will now
call attention to lakes universally. Whoever reads this subject will be
obliged to come to only one conclusion as to the general locality of
lakes. Take our Adirondack region, with its thousands of pure, clear
lakes hidden away among the rugged hills. The White mountain country
where lakes abound. Chautauqua on its elevated ground, Mt. Desert in
the ocean with its Eagle lake and others 1,200 feet above the sea.
Lakes and living ponds, full of lilies, on Block Island. All through
the mountains and wilds of Maine, and so on in every state the same
condition exists, till you get to the level and prairie states where
upheavals are rare for producing lakes and springs.
If a reader will peruse in “Picturesque America” the descriptive scenes
on the French Broad River and the wonders through Delaware Water Gap,
it is very doubtful if the various displays of waterfalls and profusion
of springs and lakes will impress him with the idea that they are to
be attributed to special rainfall in that locality. One particular
evidence ought to be enough to dispel any such conclusion.
To quote from page 100: “As one of the wonders of the Gap must be
counted the marvelous lake upon Tammany; a lake so singular that
popular superstition has been tempted to add a final touch to its
surpassing strangeness, and declare it has no bottom. As if in quaint
climax to her wild work, Nature, after riving the mountain to its very
base, here places beside the chasm on the very apex of the lofty peak a
peaceful lake.”
This feature of lakes could be extended indefinitely, but something
must be said about the smaller influences that produce them. Every
lake is but a mammoth spring, or reservoir of numerous springs that
feed into its base. The provision by nature of this inexhaustible
reservoir of fresh water is beyond doubt the most essential of any
other bounty bestowed upon every living thing on Earth’s surface. The
principle of centrifugal motion and power is here developed to its
highest advantage.
Every man that has ever turned a grindstone at early morning to
prepare a dull scythe for its day’s work, has no doubt observed the
result of frequent pouring on of water. If he turned slow, it would
drizzle off at the bottom, supposed to obey the Law of Gravitation;
but if he turned just fast enough, he could keep about a pint of
water on the surface of a stone four inches thick and two feet in
diameter. Increasing the speed results in throwing the water off in all
directions.
If yarn or cloth wet from a tank or vat is put in a tub latticed
outside and subjected to rapid revolutions, it can be thoroughly dried
in a brief time. The process of separating cream from milk is done on
the same principle by which butter can be made in ten minutes’ time
from milking.
The familiar trick of whirling a pail of water over one’s head, is
complete proof in itself that water seeks the surface and center of
motion, and that all these results are from centrifugal force. A funnel
of large, or any capacity, filled and a plug at the bottom removed to
admit its discharge, will evidence that motion at once forms a circle,
and that the center is bare while the outside is full.
At this point it may be well to call attention to another feature in
the river system. The water on the grindstone will give force to this
suggestion. At a certain speed the water will tend to the outside of
the stone; below speed required to do that, the tendency will be toward
the center of the stone, or strictly toward the center of the Earth’s
motion.
Now let us see what the river system says. Look on your maps and see
about where the common divide occurs, which is seemingly not far from
the 50th parallel, where centrifugal force is apparently not strong
enough to carry the waters toward the Equator, and the principal waters
flow toward Symmes’s Hole.
Look on your maps.
On the 40th parallel sailors have what they call a roaring sea, which
is approximately near the divide of waters, going either toward the
poles or toward the Equator.