Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1888 — Swallowed by a Quicksand. [ARTICLE]

Swallowed by a Quicksand.

“As an instance of the practically bottomless nature of the quicksands, may be cited the case of an engine that ran off the track at River Bend, about ninety miles from Denver, on the Kansas Pacific. The engine, a large freight, fell into a quicksand, and in about twenty minutes had entirely disappeared. Within two days the company sent out a gang of men and a wrecking-train to raise the engine. To their surprise they could not find a trace of it. Careful search was made, magftified rods were sunk to the depth of sixty-five feet, but no engine could be found. It had sunk beyond human ken, and from that day to this has never been discovered. Cattle and horses are frequently lost, the only animal that is safe being a mule—the only animal that never gets caught. No greater instance of the intelligence of this muchmaligned quidruped can be cited than the skill and cars with which it avoids all unsound bottom. As its hoofs are much smaller and narrower than those of a horse, it would mire in places where a horse could safely pass. Recognizing this fact, whenever a mule feels the ground giving away under his feet, it draws back and cannot be induced to advance a step, although a whole drove of horses may have immediately preceded. ”