Hour after hour the waters sink lower and lower, until the last of it drains down the great holes and crevices at the bottom of the lake. Underground openings of immeasurable length, and as yet untraced by human eye, take the water from the lake, till what was once the bottom of a deep body of water is open to the sky. Then and there the superstitious Indians desert the vicinity of the lake, nor will they again go near it until the rain again comes and the waters return with a rush and fill almost to overflowing what scientists claim was once the crater of a volcano. When it is empty, the Indians declare that thunderous roars and groans issue from the great crevices in the lake’s bottom, and they will not venture near it, for “it is the voice of the evil spirits,” they declare. They again return to fish when the rain sets in and the waters surge quickly up the subterranean openings, throwing up fish and great waves and--so the ignorant Indians claim--the waterfowl. In from thirty to forty hours, where had been a great bed of mud, all is deep water, and the lake of Nao Skookum is again sparkling in the sunlight. Scientists explain this most singular occurrence by stating that the lake is connected by means of its underground openings with great bodies of water, some on a higher level, under the great, snow-capped peaks of the mountain ranges near by, others on a lower level than itself, and that the ducks and other waterfowl come and go from the Pacific and Puget Sound. But no one can convince a Chinook of anything but that they are thrown up with the fish and the rushing waters. American Munitions Small Potatoes. “In my judgment, less than one million charges of artillery ammunition has been sent from this country to all the belligerents in Europe since the war broke out. This would not run any single army in Europe through a two days’ battle in which one thousand guns were used.” This statement was made here by one of the best ordnance experts in the United States. He had before him the official figures of the department of commerce on exports of cartridges, gunpowder, and high explosives covering the eleven months of commerce up to June 1st. He declared that, in his opinion, not all of this ammunition has yet reached the front in Europe, for the reason that the belligerents themselves have been making their own supply and gathering a reserve wherever they could find it, instead of sending ammunition manufactured outside of their own country directly to the front. The reason for this is that artillery ammunition is not assembled when shipped, and has to be loaded and adjusted on arrival abroad, before it can be sent to the front.