SPRINGS AND FOUNTAINS

And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.

—Rev. 16:4

5954 Bacteria In Water Supply

In Riverside, California, a kind of bacterium in 1945 got into the source of water supply for the city. Some 18,000 people became ill with severe vomiting, diarrhea, and fever. It was all so sudden, so city-wide, and so debilitating—just like “the pestilence that walketh in darkness.”

5955 The Wood In Water Mains

The Albertan reported this freak occurrence:

A piece of wood lodged in a water meter has cost suburban West Kildonan rate payers more than $20,000 in the last two years.

The piece of wood became stuck in the water-main water on June 2, 1959. It was finally located on February 15, 1961.

But during this time the object diverted water on its way from Winnipeg mains to West Kildonan.

Some water went to its proper destination, but some was sent to a bypass and ended up in a sewer.

But the meter still registered the whole amount. Officials calculated that West Kildonan was overcharged $12,177 by the city of Winnipeg and $8,036 by the metropolitan government for water.

5956 Hunt For Mad Scientist

Bonn, (Reuter)—Special police with Alsatian dogs patrolled Munich’s water reservoir after reports that a mad scientist was holding the Bonn government to 3.5-million-sterling ($8.5 million) ransom.

The mass circulation Bild Zeitung said threats to spread the bacteria of anthrax and botulism through the post or plant them in factories, hotels, shopping centers or public water supplies of several large cities, were made in four extortion letters sent to Chancellor Willy Brandt’s office.

A letter posted in Hamburg gave the impression the writer was backed by an organization or Arab terrorists, Bild Zeitung said, and that he was seeking revenge for the killing of five Arab guerrillas during the Munich Olympic massacre in which 11 Israeli sportsmen died.

5957 Death Under The House

About thirty years ago there stood, on the most splendid avenue of Newport, a palace built by one of the richest men of New York. It was said to be a copy of the Palazzo Doria in Venice. There were a Moorish room, a Chinese room, a gallery of pictures of the most famous of modern masters. It was a luxurious, beautiful home. The owner took possession of it in May, and in July his only son died of a low, lingering fever. During the seven succeeding years the house was occupied by different tenants, but ill health or death visited each.

It was found at last after repeated, fruitless examinations, that an old drain existed under the foundations of the house, and that, unseen, it had been pouring death into the beautiful dwelling all these years. The walls were so impregnated with poison that the house, after remaining without a tenant for some time, was razed to the ground.

—Youth’s Companion

5958 Mexico’s Sinking Cathedral

Mexico City’s huge 400-year-old Metropolitan Catholic Cathedral is slowly sinking on its foundations, and government architects warn that if urgent measures are not taken it will topple over someday. The entire city is sinking as the result of the draining of underground water, but the cathedral is sinking faster. It is several feet below the surrounding street.

5959 North Sea’s Most Curious Lake

There is an island in the North Sea called Keldive, which contains perhaps the most curious lake in the world. The surface of its waters is quite fresh, and supports fresh-water creatures and fresh-water vegetation; but deep down it is as salty as the bluest depths of the sea, and sponges and salt-water fish live and have their being there, to the despair of scientists.

Nansen saw much the same thing on his expedition while drifting across the Polar Sea. He would often be able to get entirely fresh water on the surface of the sea, but down a few feet it would be brine.

—L. A. Banks

5960 “Moon Spring” Never Ran Dry

On Cape Cod, south of Provincetown, is a very curious spring. It is in the center of a hollow which is fifty feet deep and two hundred yards across. This hollow is perfectly dry except at high tide. Then all at once, cool, sweet drinkable water wells up from the center of this hollow. The water keeps rising until the crater is full. With the setting of the moon the water recedes and disappears.

In a drought when many wells are empty, it never runs dry. It is as certain as the tide. It must be that the stream that feeds it somewhere in the sand dunes is blocked in some unknown way by the sea. When the sea climbs up the beach at full tide, the spring bubbles up. It is called the Moon Spring.

5961 Well With Constant Fresh Water

It is said that at St. Margaret’s Bay, in the southeast of England, there is a well that is always covered by the sea at high tide. Strangely enough, however, its waters remain fresh and pure, uncontaminated by the briny waters of the sea. Fed from the hills above, it has a constant supply of fresh water pouring into it, which effectively prevents the ocean from flowing in.

5962 Arabs Dive For Fresh Water

One of the hottest regions on earth is along the Persian Gulf, where little or no rain falls. At Bahrain the arid shore has no fresh water, yet a comparatively numerous population contrive to live here, thanks to the copious springs which break forth from the bottom of the sea. The fresh water is got by diving.

The diver, sitting on his boat, winds a great goatskin bag around his left arm, the hand grasping its mouth; then takes in his right hand a heavy stone, to which is attached a strong line, and thus equipped he plunges in, and quickly reaches the bottom.

Instantly opening the bag over the strong jet of fresh water, he springs up the ascending current, at the same time closing the bag, and is helped aboard.

—Selected

5963 Ever-Warm Alaskan Lake

Some years ago, several explorers in Alaska discovered far back in the mountains a lake whose waters were always warm. Even in the coldest weather one could catch as many fish as desired and without much trouble, for the water was warm enough to bathe in. Although this unusual body of water is hundreds of miles from the ocean, and there is no evident connection between the two, the tide does affect the lake, evidently by some underground channel.

The place was named Lake Selawik.

5964 Underneath Death Valley

In southern California there is a wilderness called “Death Valley.” It was given that name by various survivors of wagon trains that crossed the plains during the Gold Rush of 1849. This desert is really one of the magnificent places of interest in America. Upon the peaks that surround the valley gleams a cataract of color. The rose and the blue blend with the gold of the desert sunset. The valley itself lies 276 feet below sea level. It is the lowest spot in the United States, and geologists tell us that it was once an inland sea. But now for miles it is a waste of drifting sand dunes and lifeless. Sometimes the heat registers as much as 134 degrees in the shade. Yet this fiery desert is not the death valley that travelers thought it to be.

The pioneers who lost their lives on these burning sands did not know that just beneath the surface two rivers flow, that fresh springs are near the salty crust of earth, and that the spiny cactus stores up life-giving water.

—Elizabeth S. Gould

5965 To Cement The Spring

When they dug for the Dry Dock in the Navy Yard in Brooklyn, they struck a central spring, and the engineer said that it had better have some cement put on it to stop it up. They opened a hole and put in some cement; but the next morning the cement was gone, and the spring was boiling again. Then the engineer said there had better be some solid masonry to shut down the spring. So they determined to drive piles down, and fix it. They did drive piles, and fix it; but the spring bubbled up again, just as if it did not care anything about engineers or engineering. After they had spent some months in trying to stop the spring, they built a curb around it, and let it run.

—Henry Ward Beecher

5966 New York’s Hidden Waters

For one hundred and fifty years following the founding of New York City in 1624 two crystal-clear springs of pure water supplied the whole city. In the march of progress the pond that collected the water was filled in, but the springs remained. Deep below the Criminal Court Building today the springs still give forth sweet water, but Congress has destined the flow to large sewers that eventually carry it to the Hudson River.

—J. O. Percy

5967 When Niagara Stopped

Niagara stopped once! Owing to an ice dam thrown across the river, the waters failed, the rainbow melted, the vast music was hushed.

5968 Two Geysers

Steamboat Geyser in Yellowstone National Park is the world’s tallest active geyser. It erupts at intervals of from 5 days to 10 months—to a height of 380 feet.

The most frequently-erupting geyser, however, is “Old Faithful,” in the same national park, which never varies over 21 minutes either side of its 6-minute-average interval.

See also: Pollution, Water ; Rivers ; Water Shortages ; Rev. 8:10.