issure in the Bottom of Castle Lake

aron Von Lodge was the head of a small country known as Lilliland near Switzerland. The time was the early 1900s.

Everything was going very well for the Baron and the people of Lilliland. The winter ski season was very popular and there was just the right amount of snow for everyone to enjoy themselves. The coming of spring was anticipated and the foliage in the Alpine Mountains made everything look beautiful. It seemed that all was well with the world and especially in Lilliland.

There were nearly some avalanches but they did not materialize. There were also some earthquake rumblings but Lilliland had always been spared that experience.

One morning the Baron woke up and looked out from his balcony onto Castle Lake. There had been a big storm over the lake that previous evening but the Baron just thought it was a typical spring thunderstorm. The lake looked a bit different. The water level of the lake looked like it was receding. Moment by moment the lake appeared to be losing its water.

The Baron promptly summoned his chief advisor Professor Hamblin to look into the problem of the lake. The Professor placed a measuring stick in the lake at the twelve-foot level. He checked the measurement every hour and recorded it. To everyone's surprise the lake was losing almost a foot every hour. At this rate the lake would be completely drained in 48 hours. Divers with ropes attached to their boats began to explore sections of the bottom of the lake to see if there was anything irregular.

After all of the reports were turned in to the Professor, he concluded that the thunderstorm had not been a typical event. A small earthquake occurred during the storm that caused a fissure in the bottom of the lake where all the water was quickly draining.

The Baron asked the professor what could be done? The Professor said that after the water level became very low a large work force would be needed to haul rocks of all sizes to try to fill in the fissure in the bottom of the lake. Since the lake was fed by many mountain streams, refilling the lake would not be a problem, but successfully filling in the hole in the bottom of the lake was a huge task.

Professor Hamblin's plan worked. The fissure was measured and many, many rocks were hauled in and placed on top of the opening to seal it up. The lake returned to its normal level within the week. Everyone in Lilliland was happy.