UNDERGROUND RIVERS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10032, 30 April 1910, Page 4

UNDERGROUND RIVERS.

Some of the most curious phenomena of the world are the underground water supplies existing beneath deserts, says the Times of India. In the JRajputana deserts water is held in vast quantities in sandstone beds under the scorched surface, and is drawn up from wells sunk into the strata. Bikaner raises its walls in the midst of a weary, almost rainless waste of sand, and depends on these hidden cistercs for its very existence. Whence it comes, where is the outfall, and what quantity runs under the baked sand remain a mystery. In one well in Bikaner it has been ascertained that the water supply is equal to 20,000 gallons an hour, which is held to point to the conclusion that there is an enormous subterranean flow, and that the snowfede rivers of the Himalaya must be the source. People in Bikaner say that pieces of wood dropped into one well have come up in another. Tha idea of an underground river opens up a wide range of possibilities to the imagination, and we shall look with interest for further investigations.