Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1910 — DANUBE A RHINE TRIBUTARY. [ARTICLE]

DANUBE A RHINE TRIBUTARY.

f'Hak of Nature by Which Baden Gain* and Wnrttemberff Lose*. A diplomatic dispute of a kind without precedent is engaging the politicians of Wurttemberg and of the grancl duchy of Baden. It arises, says the London Daily Mail, from a freak of nature consisting in the fact that the Danube, though rising on the other side of the watershed, is nevertheless proved to discharge the greater part of the water in its first stretch into the Rhine. This arises from the fact that the Danube is subject to a serious leakage. Just before It crosses the frontier of Wurttemberg, where it breaks through the Swabian Jura, the greater of the water in the river disappears through the clefts in the rocks. For hundreds of years this escape of water has been increasing and at present the river immediately below Immerdlngen is almost dry in rammer. For a long time it was a mystory •whither the Danube escaped, but experiments made thirty years ago proved that the water again reached the surface twelve kilometers away, where it was the source of the River Aach, which flows into the Lake of Constance near the point where the Rhine Issues from the lake. This naturail freak, which is stated to have no parallel on earth, is entirely to the advantage of the grand duchy of Baden, as the Aach runs through its * territory, whereas the dried-up part of the Danube lies in the territory o< Wurttemberg. The Wurttemberg government has in vain tried to get the Baden government to wall up the clefts through which the Danube escapes, but without effect, as the diminution which must result In the volume of the Aach would cause Baden considerable loss. Owing to the discovery of yet « second strange freak of nature, the situation has now suddenly changed. It has been discovered that the Danube, after it has recovered Us loss of wa-

tei" In AVurttemberg territory, is subject to another great leakage near F; idijgen, and that the a’a ter which escapes runs underground for twenty .kilometers, and, like the first leakage, atec runs into the Aach, and theo.ce 'into the Rhine. Experiments •by ailttag and coloring the watve proved this beyond dispute. 'i ba people of Wurttemberg are reStic?,! by the discovery. Their govemm bat now declares to the government of Baden that unless It stops the leakage on Baden territory this newly dix-n -red leak will also be stopped, so that in -n- case the Aach must lose much or is water and the flood of the Meamvh,i-e local- mnu of science are puzzling tbr-ir heads i. to where exactly run dirty kilometers of undergtoifbT Danb.T- The possibility is that •ae river . .. ..w .gh .tremendous raves and grottoes. Dr. von Uslar, a local “landrat,” is attempting to solve the problem by means of a divining rod. . .