Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 23 -- Girls, Too!
The Mystery at Bob-White Cave (1962), the Trixie Belden series,
19 volumes between 1948 and 1986, by Kathryn Kenny
The kids are off to the Ozarks to spend some time with Uncle
Andrew. Trixie can't wait to explore some dark, damp, and most of
all, mysterious caves, because she has another scheme up her
sleeve. A national magazine is offering a reward to anyone who
can find three "ghost cave fish." Nothing will stop Trixie from
finding them -- not bats or wild cats or even a real ghost!
We'll learn about such fish in Chapter 47, Wrecks of Ancient Life.
And of course there's J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, by no means a series aimed particularly at
girls, but we'll include it here because females comprise the parger portion of the readership.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1997) being a starting point for those of studying
underground waters.
They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward
and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came
hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in -- Hagrid with some difficulty -- and were
off.
Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he
thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a
dragon, but too late -- they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge
stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor. "I never know," Harry called to
Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"
"Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm
gonna be sick."
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005) is darker. Professor Dumbledore apparates
himself and Harry to a seaside cliff where his wand illuminates a fissure, but fails to open opening
a passageway. Divining its secret, Dumbledore cuts his arm, saying that Voldemort wishes those
seeking his artifacts to be weakened.
The blood-spattered rock within it simply vanished, leaving an opening into what seemed total
darkness. "After me, I think," said Dumbledore, and he walked through the archway with Harry
on his heels, lighting his own wand hastily as he went.
An eerie sight met their eyes. They were standing on the edge of a great black lake, so vast
that Harry could not make out the distant banks, in a cavern so high that the ceiling too was out
of sight. A misty greenish light shone far away in what looked like the middle of the lake; it was
reflected in the completely still water below. The greenish glow and the light from the two
wands were the only things that broke the otherwise velvety blackness, though their rays did
not penetrate as far as Harry would have expected. The darkness was somehow denser than
normal darkness.
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