THE COLORADO—BOTTOMLESS?
Knowing quite well as we do, that our mighty river possesses a very substantial bottom composed of step-like ledges of rock, we learn with surprise that it is said to flow through a section described as bottomless! Is not such a statement or assertion absurd? But what did the ancient writer mean? What could he have meant?
The translation states that, according to a poem, the Tsang-shan-wu, "in the east there is a stream flowing in a bottomless ravine. It is supposed to be this Canyon"—the "Great Canyon of the Region beyond the Eastern Sea."
The Chinese term rendered "Canyon" is Hoh, which stands also for "a bed of a torrent, a deep gully or wady; a valley" (see Williams dict. p. 453.)
Of course, a Ta (or "Great") Hoh ought to be a Great Canyon, or a remarkable deep gorge or valley containing the bed of a torrent.
We have already been informed that a Chu (or river of ledges and falls) is in the Ta Hoh, or mighty gorge beyond the Eastern Sea. We also perceive that the title Ta Hoh applies properly to the mountain-hemmed course of our Colorado (which connects with Middle Park and runs to the Gulf.)
Somewhere in this immense and peerless Ta Hoh—somewhere among the majestic mountains—somewhere along the bed of the Colorado (either inside or outside of Middle Park,) the investigator should find a section which is bottomless. The ancient account locates it there. Nor are we to look for it in any Philippine Island. We are restricted to the bed or banks of the Colorado which we have identified as the Chu or plunging river that rushes downward to the Gulf. Our leaping stream flows into and out of Grand Lake (within Middle Park.) Now this Lake (or enlargement of the bed of the Grand Colorado) "has a beach, and far out into the body of the water a sandy bottom" and "in the center, covering an area of nearly a mile square the Lake to all appearance is bottomless."
We are further informed that "explorations of the edges of this great submarine cavern give the most positive evidences that it was once the crater of a great volcano" (note 18).
"The Lake to all appearance is bottomless. The deepest soundings that could ever be made have failed to reach bottom. Hence it is concluded that it has no bottom."
Turn these two words, "no bottom" into Chinese and we get wu ti,—the very terms employed in the Chinese account.