| Show Sl i 1 FOUND AT LAST J A Subterranean Outlet to Great Salt lake A Horse and Its Rider Swallowed Up By the Earth The Great Salt Lake the largest inland body of salt water in the world is one of the wonders of the American continent It is marvelous not only as the Dead Sea of the American Desert being so strongly impregnated with salt that nothing no-thing of life can exist beneath its rippling surface but has presented many phenomena pheno-mena that scientists and explorers have been unable to account for Notwithstanding Notwith-standing the fact that there are hundreds of streams of fresh water constantly flowing flow-ing into the lake many of them being streams of such size as to be called rivers no outlet whatever has been known to exist and the waters of the lake do not seem to be increased to any marked extent by the tributaries This outlet question is one that has puzzled the brains of many a scientist and profound scholar and numerous are the theories that have been advanced It was at first believed that a subterranean stream carried the surplus waters of the lake to the Pacific Ocean but as nothing was ever discovered to justify any such aS theory it was abandoned arid the idea S that the surplus was carried off by evaporation eva-poration became firmly rooted in the public pub-lic mind A most remarkable and what came very near being a tragic incident occurred last Sunday which upsets all the conclusions of the wise men of science and will probably lead to a final solution of this outlet problem The facts as learned from the parties themselves areas are-as follows Peter Whitford a farmer living a few miles southwest of the city and his son Frank ninteen years of age were looking for some stray cattle They were on horseback and followed the tracks of the cattle to within a few miles of the most southern point of the lake Frank was riding some distance in advance of his father and was gazing intently the ground as the tracks of the cattle were somewhat indistinct I While they were riding quietly along in this manner Mr Whitford was startled by a shout from his son and looking quickly up he saw Frank throw his arms wildly into the air while his horse was plunging about as if terrorstricken At the same time there was a deep rumbling I rum-bling sound that seemed to come from I the center of the earth In an instant i and before Mr Whitford had time to I think his son and the horse he rode had disappeared from view and in the place I where they had been a yawning chasm I appeared from the sides of which the earth was still caving and dropping down Mr Whitford for several moments was stupefied with terror and then as he began be-gan to realize the terrible situation he became almost frantic The last piercing shriek of his son was still ringing in his ears and he could not tell how far he had fallen or what dreadful fate he had met The aperture seemed to be about thirty feet in width and was nearly circular Mr Whitford noticed that on the opposite side from where he was standing the earth seemed to be comparatively solid He therefore proceeded cautiously around and face downward crept slowly and carefully forward until he was enabled to peer over the brink of the chasm At first he could distinguish nothing but impenetrable darkness The faint rush of waters far below was the only sound that greeted his car and after gazing gaz-ing intently for several moments he beheld be-held the glimmer and foam of the water Hs theh began to hello lustily and I waiting a few moments for a reply he heard a faint response come tip from the I depths below He was overjoyed by the discovery that his son was still alive and immediately set about to devise some means for his rescue res-cue Fortunately lIe carried upon the i I horn of his saddle a stout lariat rope I about fifty feet in length which he hastily has-tily procured and lowered over the side of I the opening Frank shouted up that it would not reach by several feet and Mr Whitford lengthened it by adding the bridle reins when he was overjoyed by the discovery that it reached his son Frank fastened the rope securely around his body and shouted for his father to draw him up Although he is very small in stature and does not weigh over 125 pounds it was only by superhuman efforts that Mr Whitford succeeded in drawing him up and twice he came very near being dragged over the brink himself But he was finally successful however and the emotions of the father and son when the latter was safely landed on solid ground can more readily i be imagined than described Frank was I entirely uninjured with the exception of i several bruises on the left leg lIe described I I de-scribed his sensations while descending I I I as most terrible and owes his escape I from injury to the fortunate circumsiance of his horse remaining undSr him The I animal struck the bottom first and this I broke the force of Franks fall The horse I Frank thought was not dead and he intended in-tended to return and shoot him Frank described the cavern in which he descended as being about seventyfive feet in length He had fallen on the westside west-side on a shelf of rocks just below which a foaming stream of water was rushing madly past This stream appeared as near as Frankcould tell in the din light to be about fifty feet in width The spray that was constantly eing dashed over the rock on which he had fallen had left a heavy deposit of salt from which it was I evident the stream came from Great Salt Lake The cavern narrowed down at I either end just leaving room for the channel chan-nel of the stream Young Whitfords escape was no less marvelous than was the wonderful discover dis-cover he made This underground I stream was flowing in a southwesterly r Ai lirection directly from the lake and if its i it-s not an outlet what is it The place where this occurred is about twentyfive miles from the city and the locality l will probably be visited by a party from this city in a few days |
