SUBTERRANEAN STREAMS IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 201 



trees may have fallen in the ten years sinee 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 dis- 

 tance 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 neigh- 

 boring 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 watei\ 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 indica- 

 tions seem to be that this enormous subterranean cave or water-course 

 is hollowed out through a narrow stratum of limestone-rock w T hich 

 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 sec- 

 tion 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. 



