Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/221

Rh trees may have fallen in the ten years since I stood beside them.) This hole seems to go sheer down into the earth, and I have never been able to sound its depth with the longest fishing-line or rod which I had with me. Setting my float about ten feet deep, however, and "bobbing" into it by hand, I have caught, from between those trees, from thirty to sixty good-sized bream and perch of different species, in the course of two hours. The float would go straight down, as if the fish were descending into the bowels of the earth.

The next spring of which I know the existence is at "The Rocks" plantation, some twelve miles away, and the last of the chain is the famous "Eutaw Springs," where a battle was fought during the Revolution. At the latter place there are two openings, some distance apart, and tradition says that an Indian once dived into one and emerged from the other. I do not know whether fish are caught in these or not. No connection has ever been traced between these springs, or fountains, and the neighboring rivers, either of which—the Santee and the Cooper—is many miles away. Here, then, is the proof of a subterranean stream, or more probably lake, inhabited by fish in immense numbers, and of the same species found in the neighboring waters. These fish have perfect eyes, and differ in no respect from their fellows of the ponds and rivers, except that they invariably present that bright, clean appearance characteristic of fish taken from pure, clear water. They must pass freely through the whole course of the underground caverns, for, were all the open basins put together in one, it would not afford food or breeding-space for one hundredth part of the number found in any one of them, and they must live most of their time in utter darkness, for the little openings at which they appear are few in number and many miles apart. The indications seem to be that this enormous subterranean cave or water-course is hollowed out through a narrow stratum of limestone-rock which winds its way in a southeasterly direction; but it may be of far greater extent. Near Pineville, some ten miles from the nearest spring, and considerably off the course, there is a certain spot in the public road where the sound of the horse's feet is precisely like the noise made in crossing an earth-covered bridge, and tradition tells of treasure buried there in Revolutionary times. The water in this section shows no lime, nor indeed does it anywhere except in the springs themselves. The negroes of the region have invested these springs with a supernatural interest, peopling them with water-spirits known as "Cymbees," resembling in their imaginary characters the Undines and kelpies of the Old World.