QUEER PRANKS OF A LAKE AS AN EFFECT OF AN EARTHQUAKE SHOCK.
New York, September 18.—To-day’s Herald has these cable dispatches:
“San Salvador, via Galveston, Tex., September 12, 1891.—The waters in Llapango Cojutepeque, or Illabasco Lake, as it is variously known, keep on rising. The workmen sent by the government to open an outlet to the ocean are still hard at work.
“The shocks continue to be felt at irregular intervals. The earthquake of September 8 was experienced all over the country. The material losses are estimated at $500,000, although this seems a low figure.
“News was received here this morning from Guatemala City that ex-vice-President Dr. Rafeel Aola had been accidentally shot and killed while attempting to separate two of his friends who were engaged in a quarrel.”
In the extreme eastern edge of Arizona there is a great shallow salt lake in a bowl-like depression, the sink itself being some hundreds of feet deep and three miles across. The basin, all the portion of it not taken up by the lake, is dazzling white with millions upon millions of salt crystals. In the center of the lake rises what appears to be a cone-shaped volcanic peak. Should you take the trouble to ford the lake you will find a miniature lake in the middle of the peak clear as crystal.
THE DEEPEST LAKE KNOWN.
By far the deepest lake in the world is Lake Baikal, in Siberia, which is in every way comparable to the great Canadian lakes as regards size; for, while its area of over 9,000 square miles makes it about equal to Lake Erie in superficial extent, its enormous depth of between 4,000 and 4,500 feet makes the volume of its waters almost equal to that of Lake Superior. Although its surface is 1,350 feet above the sea level, its bottom is nearly 3,000 feet below it. The Caspian Lake, or Sea, as it is usually called, has a depth in its southern basin of over 3,000 feet. Lake Maggiore is 2,800 feet deep, Lake Como nearly 2,000 feet, and Lagodi-Garda, another Italian lake, has a depth in certain places of 1,900 feet. Lake Constance is over 1,000 feet deep, and Huron and Michigan reach depths of 900 and 1,000 feet.