Mammoth Cave

“ Many hurry to and through and away from Mammoth Cave; but let us go in a more leisurely manner. Suppose we begin by a stroll amid the rounded hills that environ Cincinnati. We find their flanks full of corals, shells, crinoids, and other marine objects by myriads. These are fossils, yet perfect as if freshly cast up from the sea. But we observe that the limestone lies in thin, level layers, with no signs of volcanic or earthquake action. They were gently cut down by an undermining process that left no caverns, because the strata are so thin that they can not hold together. ”

“ This avenue is one of the great “lions” of Mammoth Cave, and many think more of it than of all the other Cave lions put together. It has indeed a marvelous beauty peculiarly its own. Walls and ceiling everywhere are decorated by mimic leaves and flowers, in an infinite variety of form. There is 60 hardly a plant known to botany that does not find its counterpart here; but roses, camellias, and chrysanthemums are the most common varieties. In many parts of this treasury of crystals there is not a space as large as your hand that is not decorated by dazzling blossoms ”

“ In the Mammoth Cave WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY NOTE—This story is built upon a legend of Mammoth Cave.
The open mouth of Kentucky's far-famed cavern yawned huge and black. On the brow of the hill, ready to descend the winding rock stairway, stood a group of young people picturesquely attired in the bloomer costume of cave-explorers. They were disputing as to whether to take the long or short route first, unmindful of the guide, who ventured to hint that time was slipping away.
"If we take the long route first we will be too tired for the short one," said one. ”

“ A great many small caverns have been thoroughly explored and are famous for their beauty. The Diamond Cave is one of the most splendid, for it is lined with walls and pillars of alabaster that sparkle in the torchlight with crystals that look like veritable diamonds. Beautiful springs and waterfalls are found in many caves, but the grandest of all is the Mammoth Cave, beside which no other is counted worthy to be compared. ”

“ No instrumental survey of the Mammoth Cave has ever been allowed by the management. The best map possible is therefore only the result of estimates and partial measurements. The depths of the most noted pits have easily been ascertained by line and plummet and the height of several large domes has been found by the use of small balloons. ”

“ I have referred only to the surface, the skin formation of this honeycombed labyrinth, the entrance to the future wonderland of the world. Portions of such a superficial cavern maze have been traversed by man in the ramifications known as the Mammoth Cave, but deeper than man has yet explored, the subcutaneous structure of that series of caverns is yet to be investigated. The Mammoth Cave as now traversed is simply a superficial series of grottoes and passages overlying the deeper cavern field that I have described. ”

“ Those who have never visited Mammoth Cave will scarcely credit the assertion of the guides that two hundred and fifty miles of travel are necessary to see all of the known avenues of the cave. When we add to this the statement that new discoveries are constantly being made which reveal the fact that there is still a wilderness of cave untrodden by the foot of man, speculation passes all bounds. ”

“ On turning our attention from the grottoes of Carniola to those of the New World, we find, in the vast Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, a no less interesting animal creation, which, though different from that of the Austrian caverns, still shows a certain family resemblance, and affords another proof that a similarity of external circumstances always produces analogous forms of organic life. Thus, the two blind beetles which are found in the Mammoth Cave belong to the same genera (Anophthalmus and Adelops) that have also their representatives in the Grotto of Adelsberg. ”

“ In this same cave, some seventy years ago, were found huge fossil bones, of the megalonyx, or giant sloth, bear, bison, and stag, and scattered among these animal remains were a few human bones.
But while the adjacent caves each possess an interest peculiar to themselves, Mammoth Cave must continue to remain the most remarkable cavern in our country, not only for its size, but likewise for the marvels which exploration of its labyrinthine avenues has revealed. ”

“ The fourth, which seems to run southward, is also unexplored. Some time ago the curator was lowered into it, a depth of 80 feet, but he has not been able to make any examination of its interior. Next is the Mammoth Cave, so called because of its vast chambers. One of these is estimated to be upwards of 300 feet high, 100 feet long, and 100 feet wide. It contains a large amount of [Pg 187] formation, the prettiest portions of which are about 200 feet from the floor. The roof is so high that the magnesium lamp is hardly strong enough to bring it into view. ”

“ Cave hunting in fact became a kind of mania, beginning with speculators, and ending with hair brained young men, who dared for the love of adventure the risk which others ran for profit." Every hole, remarked an old miner, the size of a man's body, has been penetrated for miles around the Mammoth Cave, but although we found "petre earth," we never could find a cave worth having.
CHAPTER II.
Gothic Gallery—Gothic Avenue—Good Road—Mummies— Interesting Account of Them—Gothic Avenue once called Haunted Chamber—Why so Named—Adventure of a Miner in Former Days. ”

“ The cave contains various kinds of animals, and there are also found lizards, crickets, frogs, bats, and different sorts of fish. The latter include the famous eyeless fish, which are white in color. The Mammoth Cave is supposed to have been discovered in 1809. The atmosphere is pure and healthful and there is a temperature throughout the year of about 59°. It is visited annually by many sightseers. ”

“ The body was in a state of much higher perfection, when first discovered, and continued so, as long as it remained in the Mammoth Cave, than it is at present, except the depredations committed on its arms and thighs by the rats, many of which inhabit the Cave. ”

“ To meet the calls so frequently made upon as by intelligent visitors to our City, for some work descriptive of the Mammoth Cave, we are, at length, enabled to present the public a succinct, but instructive narrative of a visit to this "Wonder of Wonders," from the pen of a gentleman, who, without professing to have explored ALL that is curious or beautiful or sublime in its vast recesses, has yet seen every thing that has been seen by others, and has described enough to quicken and enlighten the curiosity of those who have never visited it. ”

“ The tendency which some calcareous rocks have to produce nitrate of lime is, probably, one of the greatest causes of disintegration.'"
"Most extensive subterranean areas thus have been excavated or undermined in Edmonson, Hart, Grayson, Butler, Logan, Todd, Christian and Trig. In the vicinity of Green River, in the first of these counties, the known avenues of the Mammoth Cave amount to two hundred and twenty-three, the united length of the whole being estimated, by those best acquainted with the Cave, at one hundred and fifty miles ”

“ There is no danger if the parties keep together and with the guide, but to attempt to find the way oneself were a useless task. [2] We left the Mammoth Cave Hotel at six in the evening, and had a 19 pleasant ride to Bell’s, at eight miles distance. The road is through the woods and very rough, but will be smoother by and by, when there is more traffic on it. Mr Bell has improved it very much this spring, at his own expense, for he has the conveying of all the visitors from the house to the cave, and very reasonably he does it. ”

“ Water trickling through the roof evaporates, each drop laying down its load of the bicarbonate of lime to create a stalactite; or a stalagmite if it first falls on the floor. A general and convenient term is “dripstone,” masses of which are found at almost any crossing of the joint-planes. Should “fixed air” (carbon dioxide) , which is fifteen times as heavy as the atmosphere, settle into the lower parts of any cave, it would make visiting dangerous or fatal. But air currents and other causes make every part of Mammoth Cave free from any except the sweetest, purest air ever inhaled. ”

“ The north magnetic pole is located at about 77° 59 ́, and the south at about 72° 23 ́.
Mammoth Cave.—Mammoth Cave, probably the best known of similar freaks of Nature, is located in Kentucky, and has a length of nine miles. It contains many avenues, chambers, domes, lakes, rivers, and waterfalls. Echo River, inside of the cave, is 3/4 of a mile in length, from a few feet to 200 ft. wide, and has a depth of from 10 to 30 ft. It is well filled with fish, none of which have eyes. ”

“ But the majority avail themselves of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, connecting with the Mammoth Cave Short-line, whose terminus is near the Cave hotel. One enjoys the comforts of modern travel while passing by a magnificent panorama of hill, valley, and undulating plain. “Knobs” several hundred feet high, capped by the Chester sandstone, above the solid St. Louis limestone, appear as cones or pyramids, whose strata remain horizontal from base to apex. Amid the Knobs run stream-swept valleys. In level regions are fertile farms, though frequently the soil is iron-stained a fiery red. ”

“ Ted clapped him on the shoulder.
“Huh!—These rivers wear away the soft limestone layer,—if it is this kind of a cave,—’till they come to the harder sandstone. Then the first chance they find to get through the sandstone,—perhaps through a crack made by 147an earthquake or something,—they go down and wear away a deeper level. Mammoth Cave is on five levels. That leaves the upper galleries dry. Now the one we were on was dry except for the moisture that is always seeping into a cave, but I suspect now we’re on a level with the river, it’s so muddy, and we’ll find it somewhere.” ”

“ Even if we could blast our way into the place it came from I wouldn't dare open a path which would allow Lord only knows what terrible monsters to invade the earth. When the soldiers have finished stopping that crack with ten feet of solid masonry, I think the barrier will hold, even against that critter's papa and mamma and all its relatives. Then Mammoth Cave will be safe for visitors again. That latter fact is the only report which I will make."
"It is a dandy story to go to waste," said Carnes soberly. ”

“ Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave alone contains approximately 50 species. Latest to be classified scientifically are small, rather gruesome white worms of the sort one might imagine feeding on the dead. They live in water, clinging to the bottoms of rocks.
Most spectacular of cave animals is the spectral Proteus, found in limestone caves of Dalmatia, Carinthia and Carnolia in southeastern Europe. It is a kind of salamander, related to frogs and toads. It looks and acts like a big white worm. The creature is about a foot long and pure white [Pg 58] except for its gills, which are vivid red. ”

“ By kindling a fire in this apartment, or putting all the lamps together so as to create a tolerable heat, the salt 11 comes down in flakes like a fall of fleecy snow. As we trudge along the Main Cave (so called because all the other avenues branch off from it) , the mind cannot but be filled with awe while contemplating the wonders of this immense tunnel. It is as if we were walking through the bed of a river, and the ceiling, generally about sixty feet high, looks something like a cloudy sky ”

“ One of the most remarkable formations as well as one of the most beautiful which may be seen in Mammoth Cave is the flower garden. Dr. Hovery describes its beauty thus: "Each rosette is made of countless fibrous crystals; each tiny crystal is in itself a study; each fascicle of carved prisms is wonderful and the whole glorious blossom is a miracle of beauty. Now multiply this mimic blossom from one to a myriad as you move down the dazzling vista as if in a dream of Elysium ”

“ At last we emerge out of a hole, and find ourselves standing on the brink of a precipice, and hear the falling of water from a great height, and by the dim glimmer of our lights we see that there is something before us awfully grand and stupendous, and this is the Mammoth Dome! ”

“ Stephen, the presiding genius of Mammoth Cave, is a mulatto, and a slave. He has lived in this strange region from boyhood, and a large proportion of the discoveries are the result of his courage, intelligence, and untiring zeal. His vocation has brought him into contact with many intellectual and scientific men, and a prodigious memory, he has profited much by intercourse with superior minds. He can recollect every body that ever visited the cave, and all the terms of geology and mineralogy are at his tongue's end. He is extremely attentive, and peculiarly polite to ladies. ”

“ The Mammoth Cave is in the southwest part of Kentucky, about a hundred miles from Louisville, and sixty from Harrodsburg Springs. The word cave is ill calculated to impress the imagination with an idea of its surpassing grandeur. It is in fact a subterranean world; containing within itself territories extensive enough for half a score of German principalities. It should be named Titans' Palace, or Cyclops' Grotto. ”

“ But in the Mammoth Cave we see a freshness and perfection of surface such as can be found only where the destructive agencies of meteoric causes are wholly absent. Here we have the dry beds of subterranean rivers exactly as they were left thousands of years ago by the streams which flowed through them when Niagara was young. No angle is less sharp, no groove or excavation less perfect, than it was originally left when the waters were suddenly drained off by cutting their way to some lower level. ”