Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1891 — A MOUNTAIN SILOAM. [ARTICLE]

A MOUNTAIN SILOAM.

PECULIAR WATERS FOUND IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON. A Medicinal Lake Without Visible Inlet or Outlet—The Strange Reptile that Deceived the Naturalists and was Wrongly Named. There are in the world many lakes and inland seas, each having water peculiar to itself. Most noted of these is the Dead Sea, whose surface is 1,300 feet below that of the ocean and whose depth is another 1300 feet. The largest js the Caspian Sea, also below sea level, and with an unfathomable bottom. Exploration of the American continent has revealed a number of saline and alkaline lakes, all of which are above sea level. Salt Lake, the largest and perhaps the oldest, has an altitude of 4,200 feet. Lake Como in the new “State of Wonders” is 7,000 feet up in the mountains, while Tulare has less than 300 feet altitude. The waters of the last two are quite brackish, but light compared with Salt Lake, whose contents are 20 per cent, salt, being but little lighter than Dead Sea water. The waters of Lakes Owen and Mono, on the eastern slope of the Sierra, have not been analyzed, but they are surcharged with sodium compounds. Borax lake, in Southeastern Oregon, is named from the boracic character of its waters. All these lakes and seas have a idsible inlet, a fresh-water supply, that compensates for evaporation, but there is a little alkaline and saline lake in Southern Washington that has no visible inlet or outlet, the supply coming from two hidden springs. It is situated on the great Columbia river plateau, sixteen miles southwest from Spokane and 2,300 feet above the rim of the ocean. From the remedial virtues of the water it has been appropriately called Medical lake. It lies in the midst of a great basaltic region through which the granite crops occasionally, aS on the western shore. The lake bed, too, is said to be granite. A high basaltic ridge to the westward is shaded by a pine forest.

Medical Lake has a maximum depth of sixty feet, is half a mile wide and twice as long. No plant grows close to or in the water, and the quiet that reigns over the dark pool is impressive. The water has been described us amber-colored. If amber is dark with a greenish tinge, the description is good. Fresh water is to be found only a few feet below the surface not more than twenty feet from the lake shore. The first date mentioned in connection with the lake is 1807, when, it is said, Antoine Dufour, a prisoner of an Indian band camping on the lake shore, discovered the virtues of the water in an accidental and unpleasant way. Exposure had made him a victim of inflammatory rheumatism, and one night while hobbling about in vain attempt to escape from captivity, be tumbled into the water. He barely missed being drowned, and expected the wetting to make worse his already stiffened joints, but to his surprise and delight next day he was better. After this he frequently bathed in the water, and was soon free from disease and captors. For three-score years after this we hear nothing of the healing waters. In 1872 Andrew le Fevre entered a quarter section of land where the town now stands. To this- French Canadian the Indians were quite partial, for other white men wore not allowed to stay unmolested. But they guarded jealously the “medical waters,” for they had long known of their virtues, though they told the white man they were “bad waters.” Some of Mr. le Fevre’s sheep, however, led him to think differently. They hod “scab” and their instinct led them into the water, which they also drank and were healed. The shepherd soon tried it for his rheumatism, and was cured as if by magic. The medicinal virtues of the water, of course, depend on the pressure’ of minerals held in solution. These are the chloridesof sodium and potassium the carbonates of sodium, iron, calcium magnesium and lithium; the silicate and borate of sodium; oxide of aluminum and sulphate of potassium. There are 101 grains of those solids to the gallon, which gives the water a specific gravity of 1012, and an alkalinity that makes the skin feel, after bathing in it, as if oiled. As in most such bodies of water, the sodium compounds predominate, nearly twothirds here being the carbonate. For Ibathing the water is much preferable to sea or Salt lake water, and others, when rubbed on the head, like fine toilet

soap. Whenever a rough breeze brushes the lake surface the soapincss of the water is said to manifest itself in a latheryfoam that sometimes rises a foot high. A valuable toilet soap is obtained by adding a vegetable oil to the concentrated water. By evaporating the water the salt is obtained, and is sold whereever known for use in bathing as a remedial agent. Animal life in this lake is not so scarce as plant life. There is a bug which sports on the surface, a species of terrapin living more on the bottom, and a curious animal called the “walking fish,'' which seldom comes to the surface. The last named, the Axolotl, is quite remarkable in appearance and one of the most interesting of American reptiles. The name “secretary tadpole’’ would be as appropriate us “walking fish,” for the gills stick out behind the head in a way io remind one of the “secretary bird,” and it much resembles a large tadpole, being eight or nine inches long. A finny membrane extends along the back, continuing along the upper and lower sides of the compressed tail. The fore feet have four toes, and hinder five. The eyes arc small and without lids. The mouth, like the head, is large and ugly. Our natural histories speak of the axolotl as a Mexican reptile, and it. has been given a separate genus—siredon. It is so abundant in Mexican lakes as to be a source of food to the natives. Not until the discovery of Lake Como, Wyoming, was it known that the animal lived the United States. Professor Marsh took some of them to New Haven from this mountain lake, and the scientific world was surprised to loam that in these new surroundings they passed through -another metamorphosis, losing their gilis and finny adornment, while their hitherto undeveloped lungs expanded so that they would live in the open air, and their eyes were protected with lids. In fact it is a true ainblystoma, and had been wrongly named, having never in its native habitat reached more mature existence than tho larval state. The existence of the axolotl in Medical lake, or even the existence of the lake itself is, perhaps, new to most zoologists. It is also said to sport in the fresh water >f Lake Waahatucna, Washington.—San Francisco Chronicle. A statistician in Paris had the patience Io count the number of words employed »y the most celebrated writers. The

works of Corneille do not contain more than 7,000 different words, and those of Moliere 8,000. Shakespeare, the most fertile and varied of English authors, wrote all his tragedies and comedies with 15,000 words. Voltaire and Goethe employ 20,000. “Paradise Lost" only contains 8,000, and the Old Testament says ail that it has to say with 5,642 words.