Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 20 -- More Boys Club Serials
The plan was fully discussed before they finally decided to trust themselves to the unknown
perils of the subterranean stream.
The angry watery snatched the boat, and away it went with a rush into the narrow and gloomy
gorge, swaying from side to side and heaving and pitching with the waves.
The subterranean channel varied in width from 10 to 15 feet. On each side was a slimy wall of
rock rising a dozen feet or more to the jagged roof of the cavern.
All at once the heaving motion ceased and the angry roar of the waves seemed to fade away in
the distance. A terrible thought occurred to Roger. Was this the end of the subterranean
stream? Was its outlet from this point beneath the surface? The fact that the boat was
apparently motionless seemed to indicate as much.
"We are shut in here forever," cried Clem despairingly. "I knew how it would be. What fools we
were to meddle with this stream."
"That's so," echoed Gid, "and we can't go back the way we came, either."
Canoe Boys and Campfires or Adventures on Winding Waters (1907) was another Graydon tale
of subterranean discovery.
A few paragraphs follow. Note Ned's reference to limestone hills. As for the "two outlets,"
however, he's just making the story work out.
A few yards down stream the wall of rock jutted out slightly and then receded. As the canoes
rounded this a great heaving wave -- the vanguard of the flood -- tossed them high on its crest
and cast them, like a stone from a catapult, straight toward a black, semi-circular hole in the
base of the cliff. A furious current swept in the same direction, and even had the boys realized
the nature of this new peril they could have done nothing to help themselves.
The canoe pitched and tossed dizzily, and by the cold air that surged on his face, and the spray
that spattered him, Ned knew that he was moving at rapid speed. Suddenly a cry rang in his
ears
He understood at once what had happened. The underground stream made a sharp curve at
this point, and the force of the current had thrown the canoes far out on a sandy beach. From
above, the yellow flood came roaring and tossing through a passage some twenty feet wide,
and nearly the same in height. Below the angle it plunged on under the same conditions.
The beach was about ten yards long, and sloped back half that distance to a slimy wall of rock.
On the opposite side of the stream the wall fell sheer into the water, and overhead was a
jagged roof that glittered and sparkled in the rays of the lantern.
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