Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 21 -- Boys Club Singles
The serialized "The Cave of Avarice" by Clinton Ross,
April 7, 1898, Salt Lace Herald, featured a subterranean
treasure trove.
To the cave of the underground river I had the casks
carried. Then I had a wall built 20 rods from the caves
entrance and I walled the treasure there against the
roar of the stream that sees no light.
If the illustration looks vaguely familiar, it's more or less
the same as the one in Deering's The Border Boys
Across the Frontier in the previous chapter, only from the
front, not the back.
A Mystery of the Pacific (1899) by William H. Smeaton deals with Romans and Atlantilians
dwelling under the South Pacific. A bit of the dialog about the subterranean river passing inland.
"What is that?"
"It is a mysterious underground river, dark and deep, which seems to flow underneath the entire
range of mountains. I believe it enters the ranges away to the west, in the heart of a
mountainous, impenetrable tract of country covered with dense forest. But for miles and miles
this river flows underground. It must go somewhere."
"Has it ever been traced to its mouth, or at least to where it leaves the mountains?"
"Never. At least I have never heard of any one who followed it up so far, that returned to tell his
experiences," was the somewhat alarming remark of lcilius.
The river seemed to flow through subterranean valleys and plains, through narrow gorges and
beneath the frowning face of sheer impending cliffs. A dull semi-twilight prevailed, amidst
which we could discern objects at a great distance both before and behind us. Gems of value
almost incalculable sparkled here and there, and by their sheen, even in the dull light, lent their
quota to the illumination of the gloom.
Now and again we would pass on the left-hand bank the faces of gigantic figures sculptured in
the rock. Also mysterious blocks of masonry, showing that mankind had been there before us.
In "His Enemy's Daughter," Michigan Farmer, April 14, 1900, Ernest Glanville's subterranean
stream leads the hero onward.
He continued along the passage for some twenty yards, when it terminated in a flight of steps
descending at a steep slope into the black well, out of which came the noise of running water.
He hesitated here for some time, but finally, plucking up courage, went down, till he stood upon
the edge of the underground stream. This he found flowed swiftly along a trough, some three
feet in width, hewn out of solid rock. The path followed the stream for a few yards, then
suddenly the darkness grew less, and he stood on a sort of gallery above a great underground
cavern or chamber, the floor lined with white sand, which reflected a thin stream of light pouring
through a crack in the roof. Stepping across the stream to the narrow lip or rock beyond he
looked down into the chamber, whose floor was about ten feet below. Then he walked along
this natural gallery the whole length of the cave which extended thirty paces, when the stream
disappeared into a small opening.
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