The Mermaids Journal

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”

– Joseph Campbell

The Denmark Strait Cataract

The Denmark Strait cataract is an undersea waterfall found on the western side of the Denmark Strait. It resides on the Atlantic Ocean (on the Arctic Circle) between Iceland and Greenland. It is the world's highest underwater waterfall that hosts water cascading 3,505 meters (11,500 feet) downwards. This is possible by the density difference of the water masses on either side of the Denmark Strait. The eastern side is colder than the western side. Due to this difference, when the two masses meet along the top ridge of the strait, the colder, denser water flows downwards and underneath the warmer, less dense water. For reference of how massive this underwater waterfall is, here’s some comparison. It is thought that the Denmark Strait cataract has a flow rate exceeding 175 million cubic feet (5.0 million cubic meters) per second which would make it 350 times as voluminous as the extinct Guairá Falls on the border of Brazil and Paraguay (which ‘itself’ was once thought to be the most voluminous waterfall on Earth—being 12 times more voluminous than Victoria Falls). So we see that the Denmark Strait is unimaginably enormous. Due to the underwater proximity and size of this waterfall, explores have only begun to record the multitude of caves and cavernous regions of this magical place. In 2019, several deep-divers made entrance into a previously unexplored dry bed behind the falls. This is the story of what they found inside.

David Jamison’s Recollection

My wife (Samantha) and I had been wandering underwater for hours. It was around 10 p.m., when my wife and I stood up in a circular chamber that was (maybe) 50 feet across. The waterfall to our backsides blew an icy mist. I flicked my lighter to see which way the air was moving—in this cave. The wind is supposed to blow from entrance to exit. The flame was dead still. We thought we’d done this the right way. Every year, we pick an adventure to celebrate my birthday, and for this one, we selected the Strait cataract, tucked into the western slope of the Denmark. We’d done some caving before. Online videos of divers going deep or climbers under icy cliffs who shimmy through narrow passageways intrigue me. There wasn’t much information, but what we did find was a calculated theory that the Denmark Strait would have a 2- to 3-mile of hidden landscape via underground caverns. Given the size of this cavity, we’d need to anchor a series of rappels and/or wade through frigid water. We were both experienced divers, climbers and campers and felt it was within our abilities. We left our young daughter with Jess’s mom and told them to call for help if we didn’t return by midnight.

Though it was around midday, it seems as though we swam out of 80 degrees F’ heat— to into a hidden cave. We climbed out of our swimming fins and put on our boots. All I can remember is how cold it was. It was freezing. We expected to spend three or four hours in there. Inside; we encountered a series of small, frozen waterfalls. At the bottom, we pulled our rope and gathered our wits—the only way out was in. We took our time, stopping often to let our headlamps reveal the crystalline tunnels painted in glitter. For more than four hours, we picked our way through thigh-deep water, narrow passages, and pitch-black caverns. We didn’t see any footprints, or signs of other cavers. It was obvious that we were the first two bi-pedals in this place. I mention bi-pedals for a reason. That will come into play real soon.

As the darkness stretched on into the ninth hour, we couldn’t help but think we should have reached the end of this massive space. Since we’d been dropping a glow sticks every 30-40 yards from our starting point, we felt safe enough not to turn back just yet. Our choice was to keep going, so we kept following unbeaten path. Everything was good until we couldn’t see any way forward anymore.

We dead-ended into a 50-yard-wide cavern. To our rear, glow sticks illuminate the path towards the backside of an underwater waterfall. In front of us is a scenic space with what looks to be our only evidence that humans have ever been here. A mysterious, black little book is perched on a huge, unmovable stone. The rocks features that surround it were frosted in ice. To the right of it the stone, a large pool of water lapped against the rock wall. We figured we run into some kind of a cul-de-sac. This was it.

First-hand Recollection

“…A book? Someone must’ve left it here by mistake. Maybe there’s an address in it or something. Leave it there for now. We’ll gather it on our way out.” I suggested.

We continued to search the walls of the space with capable flashlights. We searched for passages until midnight. All we found was several pools of water of unknown depths and that MAY or MAY NOT have headed into the direction we wanted to go. Besides, our dive gear was far behind us. The pools we were looking at were too deep to wade through. They could’ve lead to anywhere.

“Are we going to avoid the elephant in the room, honey?” Sam asked me.

My wife continued in the dramatic fashion I love her for.

“There’s a fragging book in the middle of nowhere—here! …Where no footsteps are, where no rubbish is lying about…, nothing. I’m going to open it.”

“Ok, but wait a second, Sam. Let’s get comfortable. …grab a bite.” I insisted.

Tired, hungry, shivering, and with apparently no ill-consequence of touching the book, I agreed she handle it very carefully. We stopped searching around and I pulled a couple of energy bars from my backpack. I manufactured a small trash fire from the contents of our packs and lit it. I was hoping it would give us warmth. The wisps of smoke it created curled through the beam of my headlamp, drifting straight upward. A small breeze had been sailing through the corridor until this chamber, but now it was still. We cuddled as close as possible on frozen mud for sharing body heat, as she begun inspecting the book. A small lock is fastened to the book, but is unsecured.

“Let’s see if anything is written inside.” she expressed, gladly. “I wonder what language it might be. Oh, gosh! Whoa! This is a very old book. Look at it! It’s made out of some kind of rubbery substance. I think the pages are made out of silicon. Oh, wow! The bindings look like leather, but its silicon. This book could’ve been crafted under water. That’s interesting. What the heck!”

Samantha carefully opens the book to reveal the first page. At first glimpse, the text looks to be in English, but it’s actually much older than contemporary English. It’s a mixture of Greek and old English.

”Honey—whatever this is –it’s been here for a while. I don’t see any dates, but this is very old.” she assures David.

“I can see that. No kidding. I wonder if it’s worth anything.”

There are more than 200 quotes on the rubbery texture of these pages. A majority of the entries are brief. Some speak about her royal family and sympathy for the land dwellers.

“We have some time before heading back. Well, go ahead and read it.”

“OK. I’m being very careful with it… OK. Here we go.”

Samantha begins reading while David reaches for granola bars.

[ENTRY] “I am Princess Coralia. Every solar return, I will journey into this secret place and find my beloved. And my beloved will welcome me once more. A place I have chosen through the thrill of adventure. I will add to its frames the thoughts of me. – Coralia”

“Whoever this is or was, she loved to travel.”

[ENTRY] “Adventure isn’t all about rowing oceans or sea beds. Adventure in its purest form is simply a way of thinking. Live by that philosophy and the spirited will make more of the short time they have been given in the deep, even to the end of multi-millennia of solar returns. – Coralia”

David interrupts Samantha long enough to make an obvious assumption.

“OK. …She’s educated. She’s deep and she has my attention. Keep reading, honey.”

“OK. Where was I?”

[ENTRY] “Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go. – Coralia”

“OK. I like her. I like her a lot.” Samantha adds, smiling.

[ENTRY] “I’ve done a lot of thinking about fear. For me the crucial question is not how to swim without fear - that’s impossible, but how to deal with it when it creeps into your nerve endings. – Coralia”

[ENTRY] “Into the shallows I go, to lose my mind and find my soul – Coralia”

[ENTRY] “Being brave or being courageous is really just a matter of how much you want to do something. If you don’t want to do something that much then you won’t be brave enough to do it. If you really want to do something then you will be brave enough to do it. Even swimming to places forbidden by the elders. – Coralia”

[ENTRY] “As I swim far from the safety of the deep, I refuse to be disappointed by the things I feared from doing. Many ‘solar returns’ from now, I will still be allowing the currents to encourage my fins and explore. – Coralia”

“What the, heavens? Babe..? Did you hear that? Who… or what wrote these words? It’s starting to sound like whoever wrote this didn’t have any legs. No, no, no. That’s impossible.” Sam suggests with pondering on her fair face.

“I’m not even going to say out loud what I’m thinking in my head.” David warns.

“Keep reading babe. We should be getting back soon. We’re definitely taking this mysterious, silicon, slimy, little book with us to civilization. It has to be worth something.”

“Oh, Lord! You’re always looking to make a buck. This is comparable to an outer-worldly find. Is money all you’re thinking of? ...Really?”

Sam continues reading while David eats without refute.

[ENTRY] “I’ve amass much of the shiny, Au-197 yellow rock that has built many kingdoms. My family has much more. I have no use for this measure of it. If any creature be brave enough to reach this place by strange journey, I release my share of it into its smaller space. Look for the small crevice under the pointed stone. Such a creature may keep this measure of the shiny, yellow rocks. ...

“You have got to be kidding me! I’m not a Harvard graduate, but that sounds like gold. Stop right there. I’m on it.” David excites, standing to his feet.

“What’d she say? …A small crevice under a pointed stone?” he confirms.

Samantha rarely gets excited before she sees the goods.

“Oh! All of a sudden, you’re on frigging treasure hunt? Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Sam says, smiling.

“Keep reading babe. Read loud so I can hear you. There’re probably more clues.”

“If it is gold, it`s probably long-gone, but Ok.” she replies unenthusiastically.

[ENTRY continued] “I only ask that such a creature –PROBABLY HUMAN KIND— who can read my words, be kind enough to leave my beloved perched on the stone it was found upon. I ask this that I may be reunited with my most precious of all, truth. – Coralia”

It’s at this moment; David's screams can be felt like thunder.

“I found something. Bloody hell! I think I found it.”

Hidden underneath a shallow of frozen ice, David pulls a shoe box-sized chest. It’s made of pure gold.

“This thing is heavy as Houston.”

On the golden box, it reads: “Thesaurum autem Adventum”.

Their 'adventuring' have just begun.