• ivi£:no ^hi» \p* Z-'J'if' of njtpnturkii N kws' &Y Horace Carter Hovey, AND Richard Ellspdrhth CAiiAM.|>i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. prs^J Chap.i....... Copyright No. ShelL.M.lfr.H 2 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. mammoth Caoc ot«« Henmcky. ^^^^5^(^§ The Entrance in Winter — Looking Out. <^^^^<^<^ With Historical Notes »»» Scenic Accounts » » and Descriptive and Scientific Matters of Interest to Vis- itors, based upon ne'w and original explorations**** mamniotb Cm ot IRentucfts Jin Illustrated manual «HV» Horace Garter l)m\, H.m.,D,D. « aiid » Richard eilswortb Call, fl.m.,Pb.D. 3ohn P. tnorton and Company mi IUI,2618S? ^ M COPYRIGHTED 1897 BY JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY PREFACE. WE undertook this Manual because it seemed to be needed. Its object is to embody, in con- venient shape and compass, the latest word relating to the history, inhabitants, and recent dis- coveries that attract visitors to the Mammoth Cave. The joint preparation of the Manual v^as decided upon by the authors, in view of the special work accomplished by each of us along differing lines. It is not especially designed as a contribution to original knowledge, though many facts and statements will here be found in print for the first time. Both of the writers belong to national scientific societies, and to the Societe de Spele- ologie of France. They have contributed articles to scientific journals concerning this great cavern, and have published volumes on American caverns. It is well to indicate the share each author has had in the preparation of this Manual. The special work of Doctor Hovey has been the chapter devoted to the geological environment of Mammoth Cave, White Cave, and Dixon's Cave ; the descriptive matter of the River Route, and of the Main Cave beyond Star Chamber. Doctor Call has prepared the chapter which deals with the natural history of the cave, includ- ing the interior geology, and he is responsible for the descriptive matter of the Route of Pits and Domes. The Map, which is somewhat modified from the exist- ing cartographs of the cave, was also prepared by him, and he is responsible for the changes indicated in the avenues, and for the addition of avenues, pits, and IV PREFACE. domes not found in the older maps by Bishop and by Hovey. The remainder of the book is due to composite authorship, the experience of the one aiding the other. The special portions also have been revised by each writer, thus making more exact and useful the knowl- edge we have gathered in our work in this underground world. The reader should understand that this book is by no means a product of casual visits to Mammoth Cave ; but is based upon long-continued study and fre- quent explorations. It is intended to be a reliable account of what the visitor will see. No exaggeration of distances, depths, or heights has been countenanced. The public is entitled to a truthful account of Mammoth Cave, and this we have endeavored to give. To make clearer some of the interesting localities, our publishers have introduced some halftones from original photographs by Hains, Darnall, and others, showing exceptionally striking scenery, or views of the more important places visited. We are indebted to several friends for kindly offices. First of all should be mentioned Mr. Henry C. Ganter, the genial manager of the Mammoth Cave estate, who afiforded both the senior and junior authors, and espe- cially the latter, every possible facility for research and study. Without his liberality this Manual would prob- ably not have been undertaken. We are also indebted to the transportation officers of the railroads for numer- ous courtesies. We would especially mention President M. H. Smith, Colonel C. P. Atmore, and E. G. John- son, of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad ; and Colonel R. H. Lacey and Mr. J. A. McGoodwin, of the Mam- moth Cave Railroad. Without exception these officials PREFACE. V have aided us in our undertaking in a most substantial manner. Of the public which may read our book, we ask for that indulgence which may properly come when a great matter is treated in a limited space. We trust that the reader who goes with us in our subterranean rambles will be gratified and profited by reading our descriptive matter, as he faces the scenes and objects that we have attempted to describe. Horace Carter Hovey, Richard Ellsworth Call, SYNOPSIS. The Cavern Region of Kentucky. Historical Sketch and Environment. The Route of Pits and Domes. The Chief City and Fairy Grotto (Main Cave Route). The River Route. The Natural History of the Cavern. The Map. THE CAVERN REGION OF KENTUCKY. BY HORACE CARTER HOVEY. LARGE caverns are limited to regions favorable to the process of cave-making. Kentucky is pecul- * iarly such a region. Along rocky sea-coasts grottoes are numerous and often beautiful. But the mighty billows that carve the granite into natural tun- nels, or spouting horns, or fantastic arches, also break down their own products, and transform grottoes into chasms, embayments, or straits. This destructive agency has been so vigorously active along the Atlantic coast that not a cavern can be found, from the Bay of Fundy to the Gulf of Mexico, deep enough to exclude the daylight. With ice caves, and those formed in lava-beds, or among coral islands, and in granitic regions, we need not here concern ourselves. Limestone regions vary according to their exemp- tion from or exposure to mountain-making forces. The limestones of Virginia, for instance, have been upheaved and shaken by orogenic action until they are cracked and fissured by seams running in every direction. These were easily enlarged by the action of water, and were thus developed into countless grot- toes, some of which have gained a world-wide celebrity. But the fractured condition of the rocks limited the process of cave-making ; and in size the Virginia caves are insignificant, compared with the enormous excava- tions found in the homogeneous and nearly undisturbed limestone regions of Kentucky and other States of the central West. 2 MAMMOTH CAVE. Then, again, the conditions of the country rock vary as we descend the valley of the Ohio. About Cincin- nati and Covington the Lower Silurian limestones are presented in thin, fragile strata, with variable layers of shale between ; and in these it would be almost impos- sible for even small grottoes to grow. But when this terrane meets the Upper Silurian, as at Madison, Indi- ana, the massive upper ledges resist decomposition, while the underlying softer strata are easily eroded ; and the result is seen in some of the most picturesque grottoes in the world. Rising in the geological horizon while descending the valley, we enter the most exten- sive cave region on the globe. The Ohio River tran- sects this territory in such a manner that three fourths of it lies in Kentucky, while the remaining fourth is divided between Indiana and Tennessee. In Indiana is the wonderful Wyandot Cave, and in Tennessee the formidable Nicajack ; which are worthy rivals of Ken- tucky's greatest cavern. The main line of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad runs through the region in which Mammoth Cave is located. And as we ride swiftly and comfortably along we can observe from the cars the more conspicuous results of the complex erosive process by which the landscape has been wrought into its present features. Imagine a vast plain, which in its entirety covers quite eight thousand square miles, and that plain, during successive ages, slowly and gently uplifted, as a whole, by geological agencies. Extensive erosion necessarily would ensue. For, previous to this uplifting, this part of the continent was submerged ; but since the Carbon- iferous period the region has been dry land. Unlike the areas to the remote West and South, there are here THE CAVERN REGION OF KENTUCKY. 3 no cretaceous nor Tertiary rocks. The hills are all Carboniferous ; though in many places, as in the vicinity of Louisville, these eminences have been worn awa}', and the underlying Devonian and Silurian now form the country rock. Meanwhile the falling rains have run over the slight- ly tilted limestone rocks, wearing their surface into fur- rows and undermining the harder ledges. Additional to this mechanical agency chemical forces have been at work. From the air and the soil the rain-water gathers into itself carbonic acid (carbon dioxide) which attacks the limestone, dissolves it slowly or rapidly, as the case may be ; after which the water runs away with its mineral burden. The region once level now becomes undulating ; the surface waters find, or make, under- ground channels, and finally the region is honey-combed with caverns. Where less soluble rocks occur, or form the surface, the process of erosion is less rapid. Hills are thus formed, their very tops refusing to yield to solution. The environs become lower, and finally conical masses remain, testifying by their geologic structure to the processes that have been at work. The problem is complicated, so far as the region around the Mammoth Cave is concerned, by the fact that the compact Chester Sandstone overlies the St. Louis Limestone, which is here largely oolitic. The sandstone yields slowly to the mechanical action of the running water, but resists its chemical action ; while the limestone yields to both these agencies. It thus happens that there are visible thousands of "knobs" and myriads of "sink-holes." Knobs are eminences, sometimes several hundred feet high, and frequently perfect pyramids, left by the erosion of the weaker 4 MAMMOTH CAVE. rocks, the original strata being diminished horizontally, but undisturbed in position, even to the apex of the pyramidal peak. The sink-holes, on the other hand, are usually oval depressions, of every conceivable size and of variant depths, without inlet or outlet, except through funnels which communicate with subterranean passages. These pits were, in former times, and some- times still are, natural animal-traps, into which has fallen many a wild denizen of the forest. In order to save domestic animals from a similar catastrophe numerous sink-holes have been artificially plugged, thus transforming them into deep pools. So extensive has been the undermining by the process now described, that one may travel on horseback all day, through cer- tain parts of Kentucky, without crossing a single run- ning surface stream ; all the rain-water that falls being carried down through the sink-holes into caverns below, where are the gathering-beds that feed the few large open streams of the region, of which the Green River is an example. It is reported that there are four thousand sink-holes and five hundred known caverns in Edmonson County alone. The Mammoth Cave Railway, that leads from Glasgow Junction directly to the cave, passes a number of them. The largest sink-hole known is the Eden Valley, along whose margin the road runs. This charm- ing valley is adorned by fertile farms, and occasional ponds that mirror the passing clouds, and it is flanked by the virgin forest; but after all it is a true sink-hole, without inlet or outlet. Its area is certainly not less than two thousand acres, and this enormous depression must have been made by the falling in of a series of great caverns. THE CAVERN REGION OF KENTUCKY. 5 The reader will not expect us in this Manual, which is meant to describe a single famous cavern, to offer a catalogue of the other known caverns of the county. Some of these, like the Diamond, the Grand Crystal, Proctor's, and the recently opened Colossal caverns, have gained more than a local celebrity. Another large cavern, the Salt Cave, belongs to the Mammoth Cave estate, and has interest for scientific men on account of its prehistoric relics. It is now very difficult of access; and being absolutely dry, the explorer needs to carry his own water supply. Hence it is very rarely visited. The White Cave belongs to the same estate, and is well worth visiting. It gets its name from the brilliant whiteness of its stalactitic formations. It is really a branch of the Mammoth Cave, being connected with it by a passage, now occluded, leading to Klett's Dome and the Mammoth Dome, of which the former is a por- tion, separated therefrom by the thin floor at the end of Little Bat Avenue, through which Crevice Pit leads — connecting thus the two domes that are practically and geologically identical. The entrance to the White Cave is guarded by an iron gate, beyond which is an oval chamber, irregular in outline, beneath whose low, flat roof we proceed to the second chamber. Here is exhibited a splendid piece of stalactitic drapery, called the Frozen Cascade. It is fretted and folded in a thousand fantastic forms, and well deserves its name. The resemblance of this mass of onyx to the gigantic columns formed in winter around great waterfalls, such as Niagara, is indeed striking. The roof is covered with pendants, from the largest stalactites down to those as small as a quill ; each one of which is hollow, and from whose tips hang tremulous 6 MAMMOTH CAVE. drops of water sparkling like diamonds. The floor is intersected with shallow, crooked channels, in which run transparent rills. A stately shaft, named Hum- boldt's Column, appears to support the low arch. In the third chamber are huge blocks of limestone cemented together and encumbering the floor. And around all is kindly drawn a wide veil of the purest ala- baster. Attempts have been made to break through this mighty curtain, with the hope of finding a passage into the Mammoth Cave. With the same wish cer- tain deep pits in the vicinity have been thoroughly explored, but thus far in vain. Some eighty years ago Mr. J. D. Clifford, a Ken- tuckian, exhumed from the floor of the White Cave certain bones, that, after passing through several hands, finally came into the possession of the Academy of Natural Sciences, at Philadelphia. It has been stated that among them were the remains of bisons, stags, a bear, a megalonyx, and also a human skeleton. This remarkable statement is open to serious question, be- yond the megalonyx bones ; and it is mentioned here merely because some degree of paleontologic impor- tance has been attached to the story. * Dixon's Cave, also belonging to the same estate, is supposed to have been, at some remote prehistoric time, the original mouth of the Mammoth Cave. However this may be, the cave is well worth visiting for its own sake. Its mouth is a yawning gulf, some- what larger than that by which one enters Mammoth *See a reference to the Megalonyx of the White Cave, Kentucky, by Doctor Richard Harlan, American Journal of Geology, Vol. j, page 76; and a more full account of the same on page 171, by Professor William Cooper, who distin- guishes it from the specimen found at Big-Bone Lick, Kentucky, and in the Big- Bone Cave, in White County, Tennessee. These were evidently three distinct discoveries.— H. C. H. THE CAVERN REGION OF KENTUCKY. 7 Cave. In its present condition it is obstructed by fallen forest trees, over or under whose trunks and sprawling branches we must climb or creep. We are rewarded by finding ourselves in the mightiest subterranean hall yet discovered. The cavern is a single immense tem- ple with one eternal arch of limestone. By our meas- urement it is fifteen hundred feet long, from sixty to eighty feet wide, and from eighty to one hundred and twenty-five feet high. It gradually curves from south- east to due south ; and the dimensions are quite uniform throughout. The roof is decorated here and there by numerous stalactites, none of them very large ; and other parts of it are blackened by myriads of bats, especially in winter, clinging together like swarms of bees. Every foot of the floor was searched and over- turned long ago by the industrious miners, who carried the niter-bearing earth outside to the vats and boiling- tubs whose ruins are yet visible. The miners left the rocky fragments within the cavern piled in what might be described as transverse stony billows, of which we counted eighteen ; each wave being forty feet through at the base, and rising thirty or forty feet above the true floor. At the extreme end the mass of earth and rock does not seem to have been disturbed. Over this we can climb to the very roof, amid whose nooks we sought in vain for access to Mammoth Cave. Doubt- less by suitable excavation the desired connection might be made. Igniting a series of Bengal lights simultane- ously, we were able to take in at a glance the dimen- sions of this enormous hall of Titanic magnitude. Green River is the only openly running stream in the immediate region, and its waters are wholly fed from subterranean reservoirs. Its bluffs are gashed 8 MAMMOTH CAVE. here and there by rifts, or wide arches, from some of which issue streams that serve as modes of exit for underground waters. Were it practicable to enter them, we might cHmb through a series of rocky galler- ies, till at last we emerged in some one of those oval valleys already described as sink-holes. The usual mode of entrance to caverns, however, is at some place where the roof has broken through, and whose rocky fragments, partly filling the subterranean dome, serve as convenient stepping-stones down into darkness. Such a break is the present entrance to the Mam- moth Cave. It is one hundred and eighteen feet below the crest of the bluff, one hundred and ninety-four feet above the level of Green River, and seven hundred and thirty-five feet above the level of the sea. The limestone bed measures three hundred and twenty- eight feet in thickness, from its upper limit, where it is in contact with the sandstone, down to the drainage level of the cave, and doubtless extends below many feet further. The sandstone, which is Subcarbonifer- ous, with occasional layers of conglomerate, rises at the surface in irregular elevations. This geological fact accounts for the vast area of the cavern, and also for the paucity of its stalactitic decoration compared with other caverns ; as for instance with the adjacent White Cave, from above which the sandstone has been entirely stripped away. The British Association for the Advancement of Science, and also the Smithsonian Institution of this country, took much interest a few years ago in a series of observations for determining the mean temperature of the crust of the earth. They justly reasoned that by ascertaining the temperature of the immense and nearly THE CAVERN REGION OF KENTUCKY. 9 stationary body of air confined in Mammoth Cave they would approximate to the temperature of the crust of the earth for the same latitude. Accordingly they requested the senior author of this Manual to make a series of observations, which he did with the utmost care in 1881, not only here but in other ca^^erns, using for the purpose verified thermometers furnished to him expressly by the Kew and the Winchester Ob- servatories. The final result of more than a hundred experiments was that the mean temperature of Mam- moth Cave, and of other caverns in the same latitude, is about fifty-four degrees Fahrenheit. The extremes of external cold or heat may have to be allowed for. Every summer visitor notices the strong current of air flowing out from the mouth of Mammoth Cave, and that at times amounts to a gale preventing our carrying lighted lamps into the entrance. The cool air wells up like an invisible fountain, and flows down like a stream toward Green River. Into this aerial stream we step, we wade knee-deep, we are finally immersed as we enter the great cavern. HISTORICAL SKETCH AND ENVIRONMENT. HOVEY AND CALL. SS many as twenty-eight limestone caverns were known in Kentucky by the year 1800, beside many "rock-houses." From these a certain Mr. Fowler is said to have obtained "one hundred thousand pounds of niter." It is stated, in the early accounts of these localities, that solid masses of salt- peter were found "weighing from one hundred to sixteen hundred pounds." Byrem Lawrence, in his Geology of the Western States, published in 1843, corrects a popular error by saying of these deposits : ' False saltpeter is found in many caves, particularly m the Mammoth Cave. It is but a nitrate of lime, and has to be changed to the nitrate of potash by leaching it through wood ashes." Doctor Samuel Brown, of Lexington, made a journey of a thousand miles on horseback, in the year 1806, in order to lay before the American Philosophical Society at Phila- delphia the facts concerning these resources, which, he declared, would be especially precious in case of warfare with any foreign power. He enters into the details as to the manufacture of saltpeter, but does not mention Mammoth Cave. Hence we discredit the statement made by Bayard Taylor that this cave was found in 1802, and accept the testimony of Mr. Frank Gorin that it was first entered, in 1809, by a hunter named Houchins (or Hutchins), in pursuit of a wounded bear. But the explorers found that it abounded in nitrous earth, which fact led to its purchase by a Mr. HISTORICAL SKETCH AND ENVIRONMENT. II McLean, in 1811, who bought the cave and two hun- dred acres of land about its mouth, paying for it the sum of forty dollars. McLean soon sold it to Mr. Gatewood, who, in turn, sold it to Messrs. Gratz and Wilkins, whose agent, Mr. Archibald Miller, made a fortune for them from it during the War of 18 12. The remains of their saltpeter works are still to be seen at certain places within the cave. A few words are in place regarding the early crude manufacture of one of the essential ingredients of gun- powder. The "miners" were mainly negroes, who gathered the "peter dirt," as it was familiarly called, using ox-carts for bringing it from the more accessible avenues, and carrying it in sacks from remoter rooms. The soil was leached in vats within the cave ; whence the solution was pumped out to open-air boilers. The concentrated liquor was next run through hoppers filled with wood ashes, boiled a second time, and cooled in wooden troughs. Then the crystals of potassium nitrate which formed were taken out and packed for transpor- tation by the most primitive methods to the seaboard. The yield was, on an average, about four pounds of the calcium nitrate to the bushel of "peter dirt," and Mr. Miller reported to his employers that, from the Mammoth Cave alone, they could "supply the whole population of the globe with saltpeter." Emphasis should be laid on the fact, not mentioned in any history of the United States, that our War with Great Britain, in 18 1 2, would have ended in failure on our side had it not been for the resources so abundantly furnished by American caverns for the home manufacture of salt- peter at a time when by a general embargo we were wholly cut off from foreign sources of supply. 12 MAMMOTH CAVE. Gratz and Wilkins, in 1816, disposed of the cave, together with about sixteen hundred acres of land, to Mr. James Moore, a Philadelphia merchant, who was ruined, it is averred, by his complications with Burr and Blennerhassett. Thereupon the property passed once more, for a time, into the hands of Mr. Gatewood, who made it a place of exhibition to the public. In 1837 the estate was purchased by Mr. Frank Gorin, who employed Moore and Miller as his agents, and Stephen Bishop and Matt Bransford as guides. Then began the era of discoveries. Explorations were pushed to such a degree that the wonders of the cave attracted attention, not only throughout America, but also in Europe. Among the immediate causes for such active exploration was the fact that Mr. C. F. Harvey, Mr. Gorin's nephew, was lost in the cave for thirty-nine hours. And among the results was the fact that Doctor John Croghan, a young physician of Louisville, was repeatedly asked, during his travels abroad, about the marvels of Mammoth Cave. It mortified him to own that he could give no information. Accordingly, on his return, he visited the locality, and was so charmed with it that he bought it of Mr. Gorin, on October 8, 1839, and subsequently expended large sums in its develop- ment. At his death, in 1845, he devised the estate to his eleven nephews and nieces, the sons and daughters of Colonel George Croghan, Mr. William Croghan, and General T. S. Jessup ; of these only three now survive. At their decease the property, which includes some two thousand acres, must be sold, and the proceeds divided equally among the heirs of the legatees. Among the agents who have exhibited the cave may be mentioned Messrs. Archibald, James and William HISTORICAL SKETCH AND ENVIRONMENT. 1 3 Miller, L. R. Proctor, Francis Klett, and Henry C. Ganter, the present manager in charge of affairs. Of the guides, Stephen Bishop and Matt Bransford merit special distinction. Though slaves they became learned in their line of research, and won world-wide celebrity for scientific knowledge of subterranean matters. Both are now dead ; as is also Nicholas Bransford, the brother of Matt, and for many years the sharer in his labors. The list of living guides includes William Garvin, William Bransford, Edward Bishop, Edward Hawkins, Joshua Wilson, and John Nelson. Others, both white men and negroes, are at hand for emergen- cies. None but responsible guides are employed, and visitors are required to respect their authority. A short walk from the railway train brings us to the Mammoth Cave Hotel, which is an interesting case of evolution from a log cabin. The original cabin still stands, just as it did in the days of the saltpeter miners, only being now weather-boarded the logs are hidden from observation. Other cabins were added, at a later day, standing in a long row ; and a central cabin was built, with a wide hall between two parlors. In process of time all these isolated cabins were joined together as one structure, with wide verandas and six hundred feet of covered portico. A spacious frame house was erected in front, with offices, dining-hall, assembly- room, and other conveniences. The tall, white pillars of the long colonnade, between which one looks out on a grove of oaks and cedars, the ample lawn, the exten- sive garden, together with the rustic surroundings, make the place a delightful resort for those who do not demand too many city privileges in the heart of a prim- itive forest. 14 MAMMOTH CAVE. The natural beauty of the pathway from the hotel to the mouth of the cavern always awakens the interest of every nature-loving visitor ; whether it be traversed in the dewy morning, at sultry noon, or by fascinating moonlight. The rough pathway is sufficiently smoothed to permit us to notice our surroundings. Tall syca- mores, chestnuts, poplars — the tulip tree of the region — gnarled and knotted oaks festooned with giant vines, clumps of pawpaw, or of spice- wood, with occasional groups of the Judas-tree, and an undergrowth of smaller bushes, moss-beds and fairy-like ferns, amid which are sprinkled myriads of brilliant fungi, conspire to make a landscape of singular beauty and botanical richness. However gay and merry the party may be, the fresh- ness and loveliness of the pathway always excite atten- tion and become a subject of conversation. At a point about three hundred yards from the hotel the path strikes a wagon-road that leads down to Green River, which it crosses by a ford. Paths diverge to the Upper and Lower Big Springs, places that have long been regarded as exits for the subterranean rivers. But when one considers the great volume of water pent up within the rocks, and the rapidity with which it often rises and falls, it is evident that, although these deep and limpid springs may be connected with Echo River, and other cave streams, they can not be their main outlet. Visitors usually defer their ramble to Green River, and cross the wagon-road directly to the entrance of the cave. In former times a hotel stood near the great opening that now confronts us. But the building was destroyed by fire many years ago, and only the scarred trees near by prove that it ever existed. The opening HISTORICAL SKETCH AND ENVIRONMENT. 1$ to the subterranean world which we are to visit is on our right, as we approach, and its actual dimensions are usually underestimated at first sight. But it is indeed a noble vestibule, and our impressions of its size undergo revision as we descend the winding steps of limestone slabs, leading around the waterfall that leaps down on our left from a ledge garlanded with ferns and the greenest of liverworts, and conducting us amid the gloomy shadows where the daylight slowly dies into utter darkness. A singular fact about this mysterious cascade is that it emerges from a rift in the rocks, gleams for a moment in the sunlight as it measures its fall from the arch to the floor, and then instantly sinks to begin anew its wanderings through realms of eternal night in the nether world. This is the only entrance to Mammoth Cave ; or if there are other entrances the fact has never been made known. Into this opening, smaller then than now, went that legendary bear, with the hunter Hutchins after him, which, by an accident of the chase, gave to the world of letters and of science this greatest of caverns. Since those days the fallen trees and rocky debris have been patiently removed by men skilled in underground toil, and the rougher places with uncertain bottom have been smoothed and filled, until the veteran Nimrod would not now recognize the place which he was the first of all mankind to see and imperfectly explore. For the convenience of visitors two principal lines of exploration have been laid out, the longest being designated in this Manual, "The River Route," and the shorter one, "The Route of Pits and Domes." Special trips may also be arranged for those having the l6 MAMMOTH CAVE. leisure and inclination to take them, after having fol- lowed the customary lines of subterranean travel. Facilities are likewise given for visiting the White Cave, Dixon's Cave, and other places of interest in the vicinity THE ROUTE OF PITS AND DOMES. BY RICHARD ELLSWORTH CALL. THE visitor is at the foot of the rude stone stairway leading from the rim of the cavern's mouth. The patter of the waters falHng from the little spring as it leaves the mid-arch forty feet above him, sounding again and again in mimic echoes from the walls and roof around, gives him the first inkling of underground symphony. Looking backward he catches the last glimpse of the blue sky, forming a transparent background for the tall forest trees which seem to nod him a farewell. A fleecy cloud or two floats lazily across the bright sky ; the cheery chirp of a thrush is borne to him, wafted on the incoming breeze ; the same air current shakes to and fro the graceful maiden-hair ferns which fringe the opening above and about, or make tremble the green leaves of the trees, made greener still by contrast with the dull gray of the lime- stone wall. All these things the visitor will note if he be a lover of Nature, and then he turns to obey the summons of the guide and faces — darkness ! The rill at which he for a moment had looked plunged into the bottom darkness, and so will he. It seems to him a fit emblem of his own life, from night to night, but a brief day. Passing along on the right for a distance of fifty yards or so, and the Iron Gate, rendered necessary to prevent the work of Vandal hands on the formations of the cave, looms dimly before us in the gathering gloom. A moment's delay suffices to enter, and we 1 8 MAMMOTH CAVE. have the consciousness of being at last under the earth, shut in from the great, beautiful world of light. Occa- sionally there are found timid ones who here turn back, who can not remain unmindful of the darkness and its thousand of uncanny impressions, and so would find little real pleasure in the journey now well begun. But such persons are few ; the majority of visitors appear to have little thought of surroundings other than a lively sense of something novel, and hasten eagerly forward to sound the mysteries which lie in the darkness beyond. One's impression of Mammoth Cave, favored by the great arched entrance, will here receive violent amend- ment, for the walls are close on either hand and the roof is so low that one must stoop as he passes along. But dangers to head and feet are successfully avoided, and now we pass through Hutchins' Narrows. On either side the loose rocks have been piled in compact man- ner, leaving a narrow passage of but few feet in width. These piled rocks bear silent testimony to the toil of nearly a century ago, when the miners laid them as the visitor sees them, that they might easier carry their burdens to the upper world. Under your feet pass the pipes, bored with great toil from long stems of trees, through which was carried the water of the spring which we saw at the entrance, to be used in the leaching vats within, as well as to carry it back again when it had accomplished its work of solution and was ready for the clumsy chemistry of the day at the mouth of the cave. To the left, about half way down the Narrows, rest the bodies of two of the aboriginal owners of the land, found in the soil by the earliest miners and reburied at this place. Their tomb is the ancient soil, their monument the rude piles of rocks which the visitor passes, usually THE ROUTE OF PITS AND DOMES. IQ unconscious that here lie these primitive children of the New World. As the visitor passes along the Narrows, suddenly the walls will begin to recede; his pathway lies down a small hill of some ten or twelve feet, and darkness, but slightly dispelled by the fitful glare of his lamp, alone confronts him. The guide announces that the Rotunda has been reached, and the fitness of the name is appar- ent. Above him sixty feet is the grand arch which forms the roof of this immense hall, broken into folds and frets of great beauty along the upper margin. The ceiling is one great expanse of whitish limestone, unsupported by pillar or column, and is formed by the junction of the two large avenues which at last take shape as one's eyes become accustomed to the gloom. That great avenue to the right is Audubon Avenue, and will take us to Olive's Bower, containing the near- est and most beautiful of the stalactites to be seen in the cave. To the left stretches away for miles the Main Cave, a wonderful avenue of great height and width, full of attractions for the intelligent observer. The guides will tell you that the Rotunda is imme- diately under the hotel which the visitor left a few minutes before. There will be pointed out to you the first of the crude leaching vats in which the early miners obtained the lime nitrate for use in making saltpeter at the mouth of the cave, as has been already explained in the historical chapter. Then will come the brilliant illumination, and for the first time the grandeur of these underground halls comes clearly out into view. As the Bengal lights burn brightly the great circle of the central roof comes into view, and, if in late fall or winter, thousands of bats, in the long sleep of winter, 20 MAMMOTH CAVE. will be seen pendent from the angles and walls. The two great avenues leading from the Rotunda become more marked still whenever the bright light of illumin- ation only extends the boundary of their eternal night, drives it back but a little way further and adds to our conception of its blackness. We will now pass down the avenue to our right, named for the celebrated ornithologist of Kentucky, noting the vertical side walls, free from rock talus, as we go. To our left, well down in the middle third of the wall, about five hundred feet from the Rotunda, will be seen a low arch, forming the beginning of the first side avenue. This is the Little Bat Room, named for the myriads of bats which in winter may be found here. The avenue along which we are passing was originally called the Big Bat Room, but Kentucky's eccentric naturalist, Professor Rafinesque, named it for Audubon, his rival brother student of Nature. Little Bat Avenue leads by a winding way, described in another part of this Manual by Doctor Hovey, to Klett's Dome and to Crevice Pit. Four hundred feet beyond the opening into this avenue the roof and walls make a sweeping turn to the right, and leave an apparently immense hall on the visitor's left. This hall extends only some three hun- dred and fifty feet, ending in a great hill of sandstone and limestone debris, sixty or more feet high, which completely occludes the avenue. To this room the name of Rafinesque Hall is given, while to the hill itself the fancy of the guides has affixed the name of Lookout Mountain. This is the underside of a "sink-hole," and from it the geologically instructed visitor may learn valuable lessons. From the irregular opening in the THE ROUTE OF PITS AND DOMES. 21 roof of the farthest portion of the hall falls a spring, keeping the rocks, everywhere cemented with lime car- bonate, in perpetual dampness. One entomologically inclined may here find rare specimens of blind beetles, and an occasional "cricket"; but life is not abundant. Returning to the great avenue which we just left, we find the walls become more vertical still for some distance, while the arch overhead seems to widen as we advance. Soon, however, the roof approaches the floor, the visitor unconsciously traveling upgrade, and we are confronted by a wall of rock, around which we pass through a narrow defile. Then the mushroom beds, described elsewhere by Doctor Hovey,* appear, twQ or three stone walls filled with dirt in an unsuc- cessful attempt to force Nature to do something for which the natural conditions are unfitted. We look upon them as we pass by ; perhaps we sigh at the cupidity of men who wish to improve upon Nature's laws ; perhaps we laugh at the defalcation which left others with sad reflections on the honesty of their fellows. Soon after leaving the Mushroom Beds the avenue again widens somewhat, though the ceiling is mainly low. But in the central portions the ancient waters had sculptured out an inverted kettle in the midst of a somewhat pronounced hall, and this is the rendezvous of myriads of bats. From the name of the genus which is so abundantly here represented we have given the locality the appellation of Vespertilio Hall. Thous- ands of bats, in the winter season, suspended in great clumps, may here be seen. A single catch one night gave the writer six hundred and seventy individuals, *A Mushroom Farm in Mammoth Cave. Scientific American, June ii, 1881. 22 MAMMOTH CAVE. most of which went to the United States National Museum. At this place and beyond, the great cavern along which we have been passing is practically below us, and we move along on a floor or filling accomplished by ancient streams many centuries ago. We here may note the character of the limestone roof which makes the top of every hall in all portions of the cave, for here we are nearest it. In some places we will find it smooth, in others thickly studded with small stalactitic concretions of various shape, mimicking hundreds of familiar forms. Now we ascend a small hill, some twenty feet in height, and, passing between walls of flat rocks cemented with calcium carbonate, suddenly find ourselves confronted by the Sentinel, the lone stalactite which stands guard over the entrance to Olive's Bower. This stalactite is one of the most beautiful in the cave. It has joined the stalagmitic mass beneath and seems, like another Atlas, to hold the world of rock above it in place. The waters which formed it spread out on the roof above, and now, surrounding its base, are numerous smaller ones, all hollow, from which minute drops of water slowly drip, like ornaments of brilliant hue, reflecting the rays from, the dim oil lamps. They tip each tiny, slender tube with bright spots of white light, and sparkle like gems in their setting of dark gray stone. The stalactite itself is fluted and folded in a thousand fantastic ways, getting larger below and testifying silently to the long interval of time since first it began to form. A step further and a deep pit arrests farther progress for the visitor. But springing from the middle of the roof immediately in front of him is the most perfect THE ROUTE OF PITS AND DOMES. 23 cone-like stalactite in Mammoth Cave, yellowish white in color and flanked by many like it, but of less size. In the upper foreground are to be seen hundreds of smaller ones, all hollow, some uniting and making groups, while others preserve their integrity for a foot or more, as slender pipelets of lime carbonate through which ceaselessly trickle the tiny drops which take materials from the limestone above and add them slowly, particle by particle, to their lower extremity. On the floor below are building larger and flatter masses, very slowly, but which will, in centuries to come, gradually grow toward the descending ones above and finally meet them. Cautiously approaching, for the locality is not with- out danger, the visitor may look over the rampart of stalagmite and see below him, fifteen or twenty feet, a pool of pure water, which reflects from its mirrored surface the light of his lamp. This pool never gets full ; the drops which supply it never increase either in frequency or in size. Its jagged walls are fluted and folded in ways indescribable. Beyond are other stalactites, forming a gallery, and in the distance, among the innumerable crevices, are to be seen still others, but beyond examination, for the ceiling reaches quite to the floor and the avenue ends. It only remains to say that these formations are quite like those of White Cave, are probably connected with it, and with those of Mammoth Dome, but they are inaccessible from this locality. Olive's Bower terminates the under- ground journey in this direction, and we return to the Rotunda, not failing to note new aspects to the walls of Audubon Avenue as we pass them in the opposite direction. 24 MAMMOTH CAVE. We are again in the Main Cave, having reached the Rotunda and turned to our right. High overhead springs the wonderful arch which here reaches some eighty feet breadth, rounding off gradually into the almost vertical walls along which we are passing. At our left the guide soon calls our attention to the Exit of the Corkscrew, that wonderfully intricate passage- way which leads to the rivers by another route than that which we will take to reach them. Yet, it is often the case that parties go this way rather than by the Scotchman's Trap and Fat Man's Misery, or if going the one way usually return the other. This passage is a most peculiar one, and is really the more or less closely connected interstices between huge blocks of limestone which fill a pit of vast dimen- sions, the bottom of which, with its wealth of gigantic blocks tumbled in wonderful confusion, constitutes Bandit Hall, described elsewhere in this Manual. It is a brilliant picture which one may see if he happen near the Corkscrew when a large party returns from the river route after climbing this devious passage. The lights appearing one after the other and forming an irregular procession as the carriers wind along the precipitous face of the Kentucky Cliffs, in which the opening is, afford a weird and beautiful scene. In the angle of the cliff and crevice rests one of the old water-pipes used by the miners. The guide will inform the weary walker that he may descend into the Main Cave by its means should he prefer that method to the rude stone way. Overhead we note the grayish lime- stone, mottled here and there with fantastic patches of oxide of manganese, to which the fancy of visitor and guides alike have given more or less appropriate COPtHIGMTeo The Arm Chair. In Olive's Bower. The Bridal Altar. The Gallery in Olive's Bower. in