Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

April 1920
March 1923
May 1927
Chapter 22 -- Boys' Life
"The Cave of the Golden Dragon"
Something more than an hour afterward they were standing in
the great cave of the golden dragons... Besides finding
conclusive evidence that it was the headquarters of the opium
smugglers, they had also come upon a number of ingenious
modern improvements, such as the electric dynamo Larry
suspected...
"Fu-chong was responsible for those, of course," observed
Captain Curtis. "No doubt he discovered the place and adapted
it top his purpose. I'm inclined to think, though, that as a whole it
existed when the monastery up there was in its prime. That
bronze trap letting down into the underground river is old as the
hills. So are those golden dragons, aren't they?"
Pulp fiction of the era, reference to an underground river adding
to the mystery.
"In the Quarry Pit"
The floor of the quarry had disappeared, and he could see
nothing save only the sullen black water. He glanced at his
watch -- it was a quarter past two, just, and Bob made a hasty
calculation. His last shots had opened a seam in the rock; the
quarry was filling from some spring or some underground river,
and at the rate it was coming -- for the quarry floor was uneven,
and he stood upon the highest point -- it would be ten feet deep
my morning.
Preposterous portrayal of an underground river vented to the
surface by a stray bullet.
"The Secret of Sprit Lake"
They locked up the cabin and, entering the canoe, headed down
the lake.
"Wonder what makes it so regular?" pondered Huston, as the
cone-like peak came into view. "It's shaped just like a dish of icecream
poked out of one of those nickel things that aren't ever big
enough."
Tex laughed. "If I could tell you that I'd be drawin' good money in
one o' these here colleges," he returned. "Some say that
thousands of years ago this was a volcano and the island might
have been the peak, sunk down sort of. The lake must be fed by
springs or some kind of an underground river, for it hasn't any
inlet or outlet, and the water level always stays the same.
Sprit Lake has the appearance of Oregon's Crater Lake, but the
latter's hydrogeology isn't particularly subterranean.
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