Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 26 -- Subterranean Water Bodies
attraction, assisted by gravitation, part of the water of the ocean is being transferred through
this stratum to the underground cavity. The lake is slowly rising.
At this remark I interrupted him, "You say
the water in the ocean is being slowly
transferred down to this underground lake
less by gravity than by capillarity."
"No," he replied; "I am telling you the truth.
Have you never heard of what men call
artesian wells?"
"Yes, and" (here I attempted in turn to become sarcastic) "have you never learned that they are
caused by water flowing into crevices in uplands where layers of stone or clay strata separated
by sand or gravel slant upward. The water conducted thence by these channels afterwards
springs up in the valleys to which it has been carried by means of the crevices in these strata,
but it never rises above its source."
To my surprise he answered,
"This is another of man's scientific speculations, based on some facts, it is true, and now and
then correct, but not invariably. The water of an artesian well on an elevated plane may flow
into the earth from a creek, pond, or river, that is lower than the mouth of the well it feeds, and
still it may spout into the air from either a near or distant elevation that is higher than its
source."
Lloyd's artesian well works as shown to the right; the water wheel we've added to profit from
perpetual motion. We met the capillary subterranean engine hypothesis in Chapter 10. Capillary
force can indeed draw water somewhat above the hydrostatic surface, but can not expel water
from the tube's upper end.
We needn't worry, however, as "This is another of man's scientific speculations, based on some
facts, it is true, and now and then correct, but not invariably"
"Etidorhpa" is “Aphrodite” spelled backwards. But why would the goddess Aphrodite (Venus to
the Romans) allow her name to be reversed? Perhaps, we speculate, because the underground
river itself flows backwards?
In "Dick and Dr. Dan, or The Boy Monster
Hunters of the Bad Lands," Happy Days, March-
May 1900, Dick, Charles and a Native American
called Dr. Dan encounter plesioauri in Wyoming.
But where do the creatures come from?
From lake connected by an underground river to
a greater lake under the earth!
Dinosaur appearances twice save the two from the hands of sinister Martin Mudd, but why the
Wyoming lake doesn't drain is never explained. As we will note in Chapter 63, Wyoming
groundwater law is more sensible than that of other western states, but apparently the same can't
be said for the state's physics.
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