O^ cJL,' ^oi^dl S +lopey Geology-Geophysics Library 4597 Geology University of California iGite 10. / 2S. M ammo the ave OF KENTUCKY (Hovey and Call) WITH AN ACCOUNT OF COLOSSAL CAVERN REVISED EDITION Sy HORACE CARTER HOVEY, D. D.. F. G. S. A. 1912 IVith Historical Urates. Scenic Accounts. 'Descriptive and Scientific dM^atters of Interest to 'Oisitors, based upon neio and original explorations. v^ ^ ^ v^ v^ N^ Ng LOUISVILLE JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY 1 N C () K !■ () K A I i: U COPYRIGHTED 1912 BY JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY INCORPORATED. 1,^ Library PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION '^ In 1897 two cave-hiinters, Horace Carter Tlovey and Hichard Ellsworth Call, at first separately then jointly, prepared a manual of the ^lanimoth Cave. Both of them had made frequent and prolonged visits to the Cave, and were able to say that they had personally seen every part of it then known. They had previously written articles for popular and scientific periodicals, and their membership in scientific societies in this and other lands aided their research. Originally their work was of composite authorship, in the sense that any chapter written by one would ])e revised by the other. Their aim was to give the latest and most exact word as to cavern history and scenery, heights, depths, dis- tances, and magnitudes. Facts not for the first time found here in print were compiled from authentic sources with acknowledgments. During the fourteen years that have elapsed since then changes and discoveries have l)een made that de- manded a revision of the original manual, and l)y nnitual agreement this task fell to the lot of the senior author. Numerous alterations have l)een made in the text, siil»- ject-matter has been rearranged, and much new material has been added. Throughout this revision it has l)een my desire to give ampk; credit to my former co-labori'r, though it has not been deemed essential to give by name the exact authorship of the several chapters, further than by means of the preliminary Synopsis. Many of the drawings and photographs of cave fauna were pre- pared by or for Dr. Call, though for those of the blind fish we are indebted to Dr. Eigenmann and the courtesy (iii) iV PREFACE. of the Carnegie Institution. Thanks are due to Messrs. Albert C, Janin and Henry C. Ganter for the use of copyrighted cuts (mainly by the late Ben Hains), as well as for personal attentions. Renewed recognition is given to tiie officials of the Louisville & Nashville Kailroad for transportation and other facilities accorded in the earlier and the later work done in preparing this volume. The general Guide-Map of the Cave, made by me after consulting former maps, and with certain cor- rections suggested by Mr. ]\Iax Kaemper, brings Cave cartography down to the present time. As the Cave is now exhibited by four routes, instead of by two, this has been indicated, as far as practicable, by textual changes and foot-notes ; and it is made still more clear by the special charts of these routes. Any one wishing a less expensive ^Manual, prepared expressly for the guidance of visitors over the regulation routes, is referred to my small Handbook, pul)lished by John P. ]\Iorton & Company. For terms of exhibition, and hotel rates, apply to the ^Manager of the Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Horace Carter Hovey. Newburyport, Mass. SYNOPSIS 1. General Map; and Route Charts. (Hovey.) 2. The Cavern Region of Kentucky, and Cave- ^Making, (Hovey.) 3. Historical Sketch and Environment. (Hovey and Call.) 4. Tpie Route op Pits and Domes. (Call.) 5. The Main Cave Route ; to Chief City and Violet City. (Hovey.) 6. The River Route, to the Maelstrom and Hovey's Cathedral. (Hovey.) 7. The Natural History of the Cave ; its Fauna and Flora. (Call.) 8. Blind Animals ; their Environment and Devolu- tion. (Hovey.) 9. The Colossal Cavern. (Hovey.) IV) ROUTE IV TOTHE^LVELSTROM AND TO hoveyS cathedral MOVtrS CATHCDR tn ulnjruJM.C • THE CAVERN REGION OF KENTUCKY AND CAVE MAKING 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 beautifiiL 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 direc- tion. These were easily enlarged by the action of water, and were thus developed into countless grottoes, some of which have gained a world-wide celel)rity. But the fractured condition of the rocks limited the process of cave-making; and in size the A'irgiuia caves are insignifi- cant, compared witii the enormous excavations found in the homogeneous and n.arly undisturl)ed limestone regions of Kentucky and other States of thi' central West. 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 2 MAMMOTH CAVE. 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 ^ladison, 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 re- sults of the complex erosive process by which the landscape has been wTOught 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 no Cretaceous nor Tertiary rocks. The hills are all Carl)oniferous; though in many places, as in the vicinity of Louisville, these eminences have been worn away, and THE CAVERN REGION OF KENTUCKY. 3 the underlying Devonian and Silurian now form the country roek. 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 ease 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-coml)ed 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 ])ecome lower, and finally coni- cal masses remain, testifying by their geologic structure to the processes that have l)eeu at work. The problem is complicated, so far as the region around the ]\Iammotli 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, l)ut resists its chemical action; wiiiK.' the limestone yields to both these agencies. It tluis happens that there are visibh; thousands of "knobs" and myriads of "sink-Iioles. " Knobs are eminences, sometimes several hundred feet high, and frequently perfect pyramids, left by tlie erosion of tlie weaker rocks, the original strata being diminished lioi-i/oiit;ill\-. l)ut undisturbed in position, even to the ajx'X of the pyramidal p(>ak. 'fhe siiik-hoh's, on the othci- hand, i MAiniOTII CAVE. 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 ma.y travel on horsel)ack all day, through cer- tain i)arts 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 wliieh tlie 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 ]\Iammotli 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 l)een made by the falling in of a series of great caverns. 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. THE CAVERN REGION OF KENTUCKY. 5 Some of these, like tlu^ Diamond, the Grand Crystal, Proctor's, and the recenth^ opened Colossal Cavern, have gained more than a local celelirity. Another large cavern, the Salt Cave, belongs to the ^Mannnoth 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 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 jMammoth C'ave, 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 l)y an iron gate, beyond which is an oval chamber, irregiihir in outline, beneath whose low, flat roof we proceed to the second chamber. Here is exhibited a splen:lid 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 cohnuns 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 Avhich is hollow, and from whose tips hang tremiHous drops of water sparkling like diamonds. The ilooi- is intersected with shallow, crooked channels, in which 6 MAMMOTH CAVE. run transparent rills. A stately shaft, named Iluni- Ijoklt 's (,'oliunn, appears to support the low arch. In tht> third chamber are huge blocks of limestone cemented together and encumbering the floor. And around all is kindly drawn a wide veil « / the purest ala- baster. Attempts have been made to break through this mighty curtain, with the hope of finding a passage into the 3Iammotli Cave. With the same wish cer- tain deep pits in the vicinity have been thoroughly explored, but thus far in vain. Some ninety years ago Mr. J. D. Clifford, a Ken- tuckian, exhumed from the floor of the AVliite 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 ])oues ; 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 ]\Iammotli 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 Alammotli Cave. In its present condition it is obstructed by fallen "-■'See a reference to the Megalonyx of the White Cave, Kentucky, by Doctor Richard Harlan, American Journal of Geology, Vol. i, 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. See also Transactions of the Geological Society of I'ennsylvania, August, 1S84, pp. 67-70 and pp. 144-146. — — H. C. H. THE CAVERN REGION OF KENTUCKY. 7 forest trees, over or iiudcr whose trunks and sprawlinj^ branches Ave 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 disturbea. 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 siuuiltane- ously, we were able to take in at a glance the dimen- sions of this enormous hall of Titanic inngnifude. Green River is the only openly running stream in the immediate region, and its wafers are wholly fed from subterranean reservoirs. Its bluff's are gashed here and there by rifts, or wide arches, from some of S MAMMOTH CAVE. which issue streams that serve as modes of exit for underground waters. Were it practicable to enter them, we might climb 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 Ijroken through, and whose rocky fragments, i)artly 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 l)ed measure;; 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 doulUless extends below^ many feet further. The sandstone, which is Subearbonifer- 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 strip- ped 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 stationary bodv of air confined in Mammoth Cave THE CAVERN REGION OF KENTUCKY. 9 they would approximate to the temperature of the crust of the earth for the same latitude. Accordingly they requested the senior author of this ^lauiial to make a series of observations, which he did witli the utmost care in 1881, not only here but in other caverns, 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 l)e allowed for. Every summer visitor notices the strong current of air flowing out from the mouth of ]\Iammoth 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 wo step, wc wade knee-deep, we are finally iniinci'sed as we enter the great cavern. But let us pause for a few moments longer, iu order to consider the natural history of this vast excavation. First or last every intelligent visitor is sure to ask, "How did it all come about! What was the process of cave-making?" These excusable in(|uiries miglit as well be met at the outset, although in doing so we shall have to anticipate to some degree the i)lienomena to be brought to notice later on. As already remarked, the entrance to the cave is at a place where the roof has broken through. The term "tumble-down" is used regarding such localities inside the cavern. There are many of them; particularly at the end of Rafinesque ITall, at the end of Grat/ Avenue, 10 MAMMOTH CAVE. at Sandstone Doino, in Violet City, and in a sliort hall at tlic left of the Cataracts. All these tumble-downs are w iicre the overlying sandstone strata and the underlying strata of thin limestone have been worn away, leaving the weakened roof to fall in, carrying along rocky fragments, and also a mass of clay and soil, whereby the passage-ways are occluded. Besides blocking up the galleries where they occur, they also betray the fact that the surface can not be far away. One of the most curious and instructive of these roof -breaks is just to the left of the Cataracts, where what is known as the ]\[ain Cave abruptly terminates by a crushing down of the superineuml)ent strata singu- larly bent and folded in a direction the reverse of the main arch. Doctor Call, who first attracted attention to this mimic syncline, regards it as due to slight orographic movements by which the rocks were cracked and fissured till the thin limestone plates were bent by the great weight of the sandstone strata overhead. Above the Cataracts is a sink now determining the flow of the waters that enter from the surface at some distance from the crushed limestone reversed arch, or synclinal, which are worn away from it to the right, thus steadily, though slowly, excavating a tunnel that will ultimately become a narrow avenue under the surround- ing rocks. Pits and domes play their part in cave-making. Dawkins and Shaler regard them as tubes cut down by whirling water using sand and pebbles as teeth for cut- ting through from the highest to the lowest level. We are convinced that this theory is untenable. "Were it correct the pits should be wider at the top than at the bottom. ]iut, with rare exceptions, as for instance in the THE CAVERN REGION OF KENTUCKY. U Edna Dome, it is otherwise. As a rule, a small crevice, four or five feet wide, expands into a pit that may be several hundred feet wide. In cave terms this is a "pit" if seen from above, and a "dome" if seen from below. In many such shafts there is water ; but it flows along the floor or trickles down the sides, with not a sign of its having ever been "whirled about with pebbles for teeth," as asserted by Shaler. The grooving is invari- ably vertical, with no marks of drilling or grinding. Doctor Call and I examined many small domes that were formed on exactly the same i)lan as the larger ones ; and in every instance their apex was solid, except for a tiny crevice through which the water gently flowed. In most of them not a pebble or grain of sand was visible. We were impressed by the evidences of solution greeting us on every hand. Not only amid tlie pits and domes, but in the arid avenues and tortuous chan- nels, signs of aqueous erosion abounded. The solvent agency of water was evinced by the Pigeon-lioles, the ]\Iummy's Niche, the Fat Man's ^Misery, as well as by the rounded and worn bosses, and the smoothed wails and curves of the spacious halls. With such signs in sight the genesis of ^Mammoth Cave is quite simple and easy of explanation. It is with- in the St. Louis Limestone and underneath the Cliester Sandstone; l)oth being members of the Sulx-arboiiiferous period. ]>etween these formations is ol'ten found a layer of conglomerate, whence come the silicious pebbles often found on tlie floor of the cavern Here and there, as in the bed of Mystic Kiver, appear masses of chert or flintlike rock. The ele\ation from flie low-water level of Green River to the sandstone oufei'oi) in llie l)luff is about three ]nin(lre(l and Iweiitv-five feet; fi'om wliich 12 MAMMOTH CAVE. Ave infer that the lowest level of the eaveru is that distance from tlic siqx'rineiuubent sandstone. We have not found any hall or dome that measured more than one luuulred and sixty feet, and doubt if any exists as hiiih as two hundred feet. The tendency has been to exaggerate cave heights as well as cave distances. Existing avenues began with small fissures where the rock had been fractured, and the gently flowing or wildly rushing waters have wrought the narrow or broader passage-ways. Everywhere are signs of erosion and solution. We doubt if the ancient streams in the cavern were ever larger than they are now at high water. Some of the so-called sand-beds are in reality only the result of disintegration of oolitic limestone. On the other hand the true sand when found is as sharp as when it fell from the sandstone capping the limestone overhead. Trickling and evaporating lime- water explains the forming of stalactites and stalagmites ; while the crystals of gypsum, ealcite, and various salts, all tell their story of subterranean chemistry. "In brief," as Doctor Call remarks, "the visitor is to look at the great work of excavation of the ^Mammoth Cave as solely a problem in solution." The limestone is usually soft enough to be scratched by a knife, and in certain places it readily disintegrates, its egglike particles being separated by the solvent action of the water; and as already observed some of the avenues have a floor en- tirely made up of fine oolitic sand. At the end of Darnall's Way where it opens upon the summit of Gorin's Dome, masses of limestone that seemed solid and firm yielded like putty under the hand, or crumbled at a touch. This was indeed such an element of danger that "Sir. Ganter had his men go THE CAVERX REGION OF KENTUCKY. 13 with .sledge-lianiiner.s and erow bars and l)reak down or pry off the jutting edges till rock was reached sufficiently solid to support the timbers of the bridge he had them build across the chasm. It has been customary to explain the great fallen masses, like the Standing Rocks, the Giant's Coffin, the Whale, and the huge blocks visible in the Corkscrew, and elsewhere, as caused by earthquakes. Of course it is possible, though we find few signs of seismic action anywhere. It is more probal)le that these masses fell by their own weight after having been loosened l)y solu- tion along the joints caused by early continental up- lifting. The subterranean rivers, after all, are tlu' great cave- makers. One who sees them at their lowest stage in sunuuer and floats over them at his leisure, anuising himself by their echoes, can have no idea of their tremendous volume and force in winter or early spring. There are times when the Dead Sea, Styx, Lake Lethe, Echo River and the Roaring River combine into a swollen stream fully two miles long, and how m\u-h further into inaccessible depths nobody knows, and with a maximum depth of one hundred feet. ]\Ioreover this flood has a strong current making navigation dangerous. Rising, falling, sweeping under overhanging ledges, these waters hollow out long horizontal passage-ways, sway to and fro like liquid battering-rams, hanuner down weak walls, and undermine arches, thus making, dui'ing many ages, those successive tiers, or galleries, for which the cave is noted. Thus the uKH'hanical force and action of run- ning water must be reckoned into the account, as well as the more silent energy of simple solution. As the process goes on, the cave cuts down from high levels to lower 14 MAMMOTH CAVE. ones, thus leavin.u' tlic iii)per galleries dry as tinder, of which (iothic Avenue is a consi)icuous example. On the other hand a filling-np process also goes on. Standing Avater deposits nitrous earth and various mineral suhstances. Water trickling from crevices in the roof slowly evaporates, thus creating stalactites and stalagmites, hy which the passages are finally occluded, as is the case Avith the avenue heyond Olive's Bower. But it Avill take countless ages to ohliterate the immense cavity from whose ramifications it is estimated that millions of cubic yards of limestone have been removed hy the chemical and mechanical action of the waters that drip, trickle, flow or rush through the multiplied open- ings of this subterranean realm whicli we are about to explore. Note. — A word further as to air currents, which are some- times quite violent. The theory that the air rushes into the cave in winter and out in summer must now be modified. Mr. A. M. Banta made observations with an anemometer in the winter of 1903, and says, " The air currents were surprisingly fitful." The air would run in for a few minutes and then flow out again. He recorded the inward rates per hour in February as varying from 50,556 feet to 77,396 feet. Eigenmann, who made observations in November, reports the ingoing rates as varying from 7,800 feet per hour to a maximum of 55,830 feet. Again he says: " I have been at the entrance to Mammoth Cave when the internal and external pressures were so equalised that the anemometer would show ingoing and outgoing currents alternating irregularly every' few minutes." I find no record of the force of outgoing currents in summer. Very decided air cur- rents were observed by me in Gorin's Dome and the Mammoth Dome, seeming to prove an outside opening. — H. C. H. HISTORICAL SKETCH AND ENVIRONMENT AS 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 18-13, corrects a popular error by saying of these deposits: "False saltpeter is found in many caves, particularly in the ^Mammoth Cave. It is but a nitrate of lime, and has to be changed to tlie 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 180(5, in order to lay before the American Philosophical Society at Phila- delphia the facts concerning these resources, which, he declared, would he especially precious in case of warfare with any foreign power. lie enters into details as to Ihe manufacture of saltpeter, but does not mention Mam- moth Cave. The records at Bowling Green designate tliat cave as a corner of a section of land in 17i)7 ; wbiclv antedates the statement by Bayard Taylor tliat it was found in 1802, and of Frank (Jorin that it was first entered ])y Ilouchiiis in ISO!). The fact that it was i-ich in nitrous earth led to its i)urciiase l)y a Mr. ]\IcLean, in 1811, who ])Ouglit the cave and two lumdred acres of 16 MAMMOTH CAVE. land about its mouth, paying for it the sum of forty dollars. ^IcLean soon sold it to ^Ir. Gatewood, who, in turn, sold it to jMessrs. Gratz and Wilkins, whose agent, Mr. Archibald ^Miller, made a fortune for them from it during the War of 1812. The remains of their saltpeter works are still to be seen at certain places within the cave. Rebecca Gratz, daughter of the senior member of this firm, was a beautiful Jewess, and a friend of Wash- ington Irving, who related her romantic story to Sir Walter fSeott in 1817. Shortly afterward "Ivanhoe" appeared, in 1819. Scott sent a first copy to Irving, asking, ''IIow do you like your 'Rebecca'! Does the Rebecca I have pictured [in Ivanhoe] compare well with the pattern given by you?" Miss Gratz was born in 1781 and died in 1869, at Philadelphia. 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. ]\riller reported to his employers that, from the IVrammoth Cave alone, they could "supi)ly the whole HISTORICAL SKETCH AND EXVIROXMEXT. 17 population of the globe with saltpeter." Emphasis sliould be laid on the faet, not mentioned in any history of the United States, that our AVar with Great Britain, in 1812, would have ended in failure on our sid(^ had it not been for the resources so abundantly furnishetl by American caverns for the home manufacture of salt- peter at a time when by a general embargo we were wholly cut olf from foreign sources of supply. Gratz and Wilkins, in 1816, disposed of the cave, together with about sixteen hundred acres of land, to Air. James Aloore, a Philadelphia merchant, who was ruined, it is averred, liy his complications with Burr and Blennerhassctt. Thereupon the property passed once more, for a time, into the hands of Air. Gatewood, who made it a place of exhibition to the public. In 1887 the estate was purchased by Air. Frank Gorin, who employed Aloore and Aliller as his agents, and Stephen I^ishop and Alatt Bransford as guides. Then b(gan tlie era of discoveries. Explorations were pushed to such a degree that the wonders of tiie cave attracted attention, not only throughout America, but also in Europ(\ Among the immediate causes for such active exploration was tlie fact that Air. C. F. Harvey, Air. Gorin 's nephew, was lost in the cave for thirty-nine hours. And among the I'csults was tlu' fact tliat Doctor John Croghan, a young pliysician of Louis\illc, was repeatedly asked, dui-ing his travels abroad, about the marvels of Alammotli Cave. It inoi'tified him 1o own that he could give no information. Accordingly, on his return, he visited the locality, and was so charmed with it that he l)OUght it of Air. Gorin. on October S, 1889, for -i^lOjOOO, and expended large sums in ils develop- ment. At his death, in 1845, he devised the estate to 18 MAMMOTH CA\^. 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 IMessrs. Archibald, James and William iMiller, L. J. Proctor, W. Owsley, D. L. Graves, Francis Klett, W. C. Comstock, H. C. Ganter, and L. F. Charlet. Of the guides, Stephen Bishop and ]\Iatt 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 William Garvin. The list of recent guides includes William I)ransford, Edward Bishop, Edward Hawkins, Joshua AVilson, Robert Lively, and John Nelson. Others, both white men and negroes, are at hand for emergencies. None but responsi])Ie guides are employed, and visitors are recpiircd to respect their authority. A short walk from the railway train brings us to the IMammoth 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 *A bill for the expropriation of the estate as a national park was intro- duced iu U. S. Congress by Hon. R. Y. Thomas, M. C, January 17, 1911. HISTORICAL SKETCH -VXD ENVIRON M EXT. 19 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. 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 siiuiller bushes, moss-beds and fairy-like ferns, amid which are sprinkled myriads of brilliant fungi, conspii-t' to make a landscape of singular beauty and botanical richness. However gay and merry the party may be, the fresh- ness and loveliness ot the pathway always excite atten- tion and become a suljject of conversation. At a point about three hundred yards from the hotel the |);ith strikes a wagon-i'oad 1h;il h'ads down to Creer. Kiver and the steamboat landing. Paths diverge to the Upper and Lower Big Springs, places that have long been regarded as exits for tlie subtciTaiicnn i-ivcrs. Hut when on(» considers the great volume of water jx-nt up within the rocks, and the I'apidity with which it often 20 MAMMOTH CAVE. rises and falls, it is evident that, although these deep and limpid s])rings may be connected with Echo River and other cave .streams, they can not be their main outlet. \'isitors 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. T3ut the building was destroyed by fire many years ago, and only the scarred trees near by prove that it ever existed. The opening 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 stairway of limestone slabs, leading beyond 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 dark- ness. A singular fact al)out this mysterious cascade is tliat 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 llutchins 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 ])atiently removed ])y men skilled in HISTORICAL SKETCH AND ENVIRON -MEXT. 21 underground toil, and the rougher places with uncertain bottom have been smoothed and filled, until the veteran Nimrod would not now recognize the place wliich lie is said by ^Ir. Frank Gorin to have been the first of all mankind to see and imperfectly explore. Certain hours are fixed for entering the Cave, from which it is not usual to depart. Four routes are mapped out, the uniform charge for each being two dollars. For terms for the season, or for large parties, or indeed for anything special, application should be made to the Mammotli Cave ]Manager. Cave suits are to let, and proper methods of illumination are provided l)y the guides. xVs this ^Manual is meant for the leisurely perusal of the general reader, the revising editor has thought it necessary to recast only in i^art the descriptions originally written by the joint authors, at a time wlien the method of exhibiting the Cave was l)y two principal routes and several special routes, instead of by four routes as no\\ . For convenience, however, the four cliarts of existing routes will be found, together witii the revised general Map of the Cave and a key to the same, in tlie introduc- tion to this volume. THE ROUTE OF PITS AND DOMES 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 falling 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 tioats 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 al)Ove and about, or makes tremble the green leaves of the trees, made greener still by contrast with the dull gray of the limestone wall. All these things the visitor will note if he be a lover of Nature, and then he turns to obey the sinnmons of the guide and faces — darkness ! The rill at which he for a moment liad looked plunges 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 more 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 have the consciousness of being at last under the earth, shut in from tlie great, beautiful world of light, Occa- THE ROUTE OF PITS AND DOMES. 23 sionally there are found timid ones who here turn back, who can not remain unmindful of the darkness and its thousand uncanny impressions, and so woidd find little real pleasure in the journey now well begun. But such persons are few; the majoritj^ of visitors appear to have little tliought 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, may 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 si)ring that we saw at the entrance, to be used in the leaehing vats within, as well as to carry it back again when it had accomplished its Avork of solution and was ready for tlie clumsy chemistry of the day at the mouth of the cave. To tlie left, al)out half w^ay down the Narrows, rest tlie bodies of two of the aboriginal owners of 1lie l.nid. found in the soil by the earliest miners and n'huried at U\\> place. Their tomb is the aneient soil, their monument the rude piles of rocks whieh the visitor i)asses, usually unconscious that hert' lie lliese ])i'iiiiitive ehildi'eii of the New World. 24 MAMMOTII CAVE. 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 hy 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, un- sui)ported ])y pillar or column, and is formed l)y 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 some of the most beautiful stalactites to be seen in the cave. To the left stretches away for miles the ^Fain Cave, a Avonderful 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 is clearly made visible. As the Bengal liglits 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, will be seen pendent from the angles and walls. The two great avenues leading from the Rotunda become THE ROUTE OF PITS AND DOMES. 25 still more marked whenever the ])right light of illumi- nation only extends the boundary of their eternal night, drives it back but a little way farther 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 ])ats which in winter may be found here. The avenue along which we are passing was originally called the I^ig Bat Room, but Kentucky's eccentric naturalist, Professor Rafinesque, named it for Audulion, his rival brother student of Nature.* Little Bat Avenue leads by a winding way, described in another part of this ^lanual, to Klett's Dome and to Crevice Pit. Four hundred feet bej^ond the opening into this avenue the roof and walls make a sweeping turn to the right, and leave an apparently immense hall on tlio 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, whieti completely occludes the avenue. To this room the name of Rafinesciue Hall is given, while to the hill itseli! the fancy of the guides has affixed the name of Lookout Mountain. This is the underside of a "sink-hole," and from it tli<' geologically instructed visitor may learn valuable lessons. I'^'i-oiu the ii'i'cgular opening in the *Now included in Route II, 26 MAMMOTH CAVE. roof of the farthest portion of the hall, water falls, 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, two 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 w^e 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 ]\Iushroom 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. Thou- sands of bats, in the winter season, suspended in great clumps, may here be seen. A single catch one night ♦A Mushroom Farm in Mammoth Cave. Scientific American, June ii, 1881. THE ROUTE OF PITS AND DOMES. 27 gave Doctor Call six hundred and seventy individuals, most of which went to the United States National IMuseum. 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 shapes, 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 J^ower. 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 l)i-iglit spots of white light, and sparkle like gems in their s(4ting of dark gray stone. The stalactite itself is fhite(l and folded in a hundred fantastic ways, getting larger bek)\v and testifying silently to the long interval o£ time since first it began to form. A step beyond and a deep pit arrests fartlier jirogress for the visitor. But springing from the middle of the 28 ma:\i>ioth cave. roof immediately in front of liiin is the most perfect cone-like stalactite in ]Mannnotli Cave, yellowish white in color and tlanked 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 that 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 lielow 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 innumeral)le crevices, • are to be seen still others, but 1)eyond 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, and are probably connected with it and with tliose of ]\Iammoth Dome, but 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 The Ann Cliair. In Olivi's Bower. The Bridal Altar. The Gallery in Olive's Bower. THE ROUTE OF PITS AND DOMES. 29 of Audubon Avenue as we pass them in the opposite direction. We are again in the Main Cave, having reached tiie Rotunda and turned to our right. High overhead springs the wonderful arch wliieh here reaches some eighty feet l)readth, rounding off grachially 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 Avhich leads to the rivers l)y another route than that which we will take to reach them. Yet, it is often the case that parties go this way rather than hy tlie Scotchman's Trap and Fat Man's Misery, or if going the one v\-ay usually return the other. This passage is a most peculiar one, and is formed by a series of connected interstices between huge l)locks of limestone that fill a pit of vast dimensions, the bottom of which, with its wealth of gigantic l)locks tum])l('d in wonderful confusion, constitutes Bandit Hall, dpscril)ed elsewhere in this ^Manual. It is a brilliant picture that . one may see it" he hap])!!! 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 foi-ming an irregular ])rocessi()n as the carriers wind along llie ])recipitous face of the Kentucky Cliffs, in which tiie opening is, afford a weird and beautiful scene. In the angle of the clift' 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 ]\Iain Cave l)y its means shouM he prefer that method to the rude stone wav. Overhead vc note the grayish lime- 30 MAMMOTH CAVE. 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 appro- priate names. If the visitor is not rather imaginative he will probably regard some of the names as less appropriate. At a number of places in this part of the great cavern the abundant evidences of water action will arrest the visitor's attention. Close to the pathway will be seen the Pigeon Boxes, a name given to a num- ber of small openings which are formed by the unequal solution of the ancient rocks. A short distance beyond the Exit of the Corkscrew will be noted the flowing outlines of a great circuit of the cave, while to the right may be seen the water- pipes of the old miners of 1812, standing to-day as wlien left l)y those busy toilers. The lower pipe brought the water from the mouth of the cave ; the ujiper one led it back, forced by primitive pumps, laden with lime nitrate in solution. It will be interesting for the visitor to note the perfect preservation of these old- time waterways, for though they have been in the cave for fourscore or more years undisturbed, they still show no sign of decay. Try and lift one of those that lie in the pathway and you will be astonished at its lightness. Perfect in all respects, they remain here faithful moni- tors of a patriotism now but a reminiscence. Just beyond these pipes will ])e seen, well preserved in the lixiviated dirt, the tracks worn by creaking wagon with its load of "peter-dirt," or perchance the foot- marks of patient oxen, who here bore their share of the toil for the maintenance of our national integrity among the peoples of earth. At other places, on the sides, a tr^ THE ROUTE OF PITS AND DO.MES. 31 little farther along, will be noted the grooves made by immense hubs as they were slowly pulled through the old-time mud. Then come the great heaps of lixivi- ated dirt, telling us we are near the second of the series of leaching vats. But just before this we will have passed the Church, the name given to the great hall formed by the union of the main cave and Archil)ald Avenue, a broad avenue on the left, occluded at a short distance by gigantic rocks and cubic yards of fine yellow sand. Tradition has it that originally the name was given because here were held religious services for the miners, in the olden time. However this may be, occa- sionally the over-Sabbath visitors number among them a clergyman, and these gentlemen sometimes hold serv- ices in this locality. The writer was present on one such occasion, when the senior author of this jNIanual conducted such an office. The sounds of sacred song, swelled to great volume by the ten thousand echoes and reverberations from the cliffs and grottoes surrounding, were indescribably sweet, and all tonic errors were corrected by the greater symphony of the large reso- nator hall. And now we pass along the great piles of dirt, and when we remember that much of this material was brought to this locality in sacks, on the shoulders of slaves, from points often two or more miles away, obtained after great labor in removing tons of loose rocks and gathering the line silt, a little here and a little yonder, we are impressed with the toil wliicii was needed to procure materials for leaching. The hillocks of leached eartli stand, iiiaM\- in lumihef, on otu' right and on our left: we wind among them, we climb over 32 MAMMOTH CAVE. them; we think, perhaps, of their makers. But our mood must suddenly change, for our guides hurry us away to the vats themselves. In the midst of these piles of dirt are the second series of vats, "hoppers" the older writers call them, which well deserve careful examination. They are from eight to ten feet in width, and perhaps four or five feet longer, and four or five feet in depth when empty. The rude bottoms are of particular interest, since they show the resourceful methods of the early miner. Logs, split into halves and from small trees, were used; these were afterward rudely grooved and placed in two layers, one resting on wooden supports with curved surface down, the second with convex surface uppermost and fitting into the grooves of those below. The waters after passing through the content of fine dirt Avere gathered by this primitive device and made to fiow into small pits near the corners of the vats, whence they were conducted to a larger reservoir to be pumjied to the entrance. The leaching accom- plished, the exhausted dirt was thrown into the heaps you will see around you and another charge placed in the "hoppers." At this point we leave the ]\Iain Cave for a short time and climl) the broad flight of stairs, jiist beyond the vats, into Gothic Avenue.* At the topmost part of the cliff which w^e have scaled is Booth's Amphithe- atre ; here, once Edvrin Bootli, that celebrated actor, gave a rendition of one of the dramatic characters which have made his name famous, to test the acoustic properties of this hall. He stood on the large rocks *Now included in Route II (from page 32 to page 39). THE MUMMY. The Mammoth Cave Mummy, or what was exhibited as such and described on page 33 of this Manual. This unique specimen of a naturally dessicated "mummy " reposes now in the United States National Museum at Washington, with a perfect history, and it was photographed by the late G. Browne Goode for the writer. THE ROUTE OF PITS AND DOMES. 33 above us, on the right, facing in. From this circum- stance the place gained its name. The avenue into which we will now advance is not high, nor is it very broad, except in occasional places. The floor is somewhat irregular, while on every hand are to be seen the evidences of water acting as the agent of solution. The propensity of former tourists to make a record of their visitation may be seen in the names smoked on every wall, in some few cases scratched deeply into the hard limestone. The only thing that most of them ever did to hand their names down to other times consists in this single act of vandalism. Hundreds of such names will greet the visitor as he journeys through portions of this avenue. Frequently cards are left instead. Among the numerous grottoes and alcoves worn out of the side walls by the ancient waters will be noted two or three of particular interest. One of these is the ]\lummy's Niche. This name has some historic significance. Away back in the earlier yeai's of the cavern's history a mummy was found in Sails Cave, on the ]\Iammoth Cave estate. This was made the subject of many interesting speculations, most of wliieh have little value and less basis of fact, but came to assume literary importance. The nuuiimy was hrouglit to IMammoth Cave and placed on exhibition in this avenue, and in this si)ot kept i'or some months. Later it found its way to Cincinnati, by way of Lexington; thence it was taken to New York and exhibited, and finally removed to Worcester, IMassachusetts, where t'oi' many years it remained. During the AVorld's Fair it was on exhibition in the AVliite City, and at its close ,])ee;niic the pi-opci'ty of the X;ilioii;il Museum, and 34 M a:\imotii cave. may now be seen in AVa.sliin<;ton. The miinnny never properly belonged to .Maiiimotli Cave; the only hnman remains ever found within its limits were the woman and child who lie buried beneath the rocks in Ilutchins' Narrows, near the entrance. The chief objects of interest in Gothic Avenue are the numerous stalactites, which are found, however, near its far end. As we advance the character of the walls and the ceiling changes, the smooth, white areas give way to rougher ones, caused l)y the innumerable smaller stalactitic masses which hang from the roof. We will pass many State monuments, and to these we will add o'lr quota, mindfid only of the fair name of our State. What boots it if we take from that of a rival State and add to our own? Do we not know that this has been done by others, perhaps from our own? And so we take two, one to repair the damage done, the other to add our mite to the growing column! Ken- tucky's ]\Ionument is the largest of them all, reaching to the very roof; yet be it said, Kentucky's people know less of their great wonder than many from far beyond its limits. But now the monuments are all passed, and we reach the first stalactitic-stalagmite of the avenue. It is the Post Oak Pillar from some fancied resem- blance to an old oak stump deprived of its bark. Sj) ringing from the roof about its base are hundreds of smaller forms, many imitating bunches of grapes, while it has grown downward and long ago joined the mass on the floor. Neither it nor many of its fellows are now growing; the avenue is one of the driest in the great cave, belongs to the upper levels, and the waters which form stalactites, except in a single instance, long THE ROUTE OF PITS AND DOMES. 35 since left its locality. The Pillared Castle, the Gothic Chapel, the Pillar of Hercules, the largest group of stalactites in the cave, Pompey and Ctesar, the Wasps' Nests, the Elephants' Heads, Wilkin's Arm-Chair, all come in rapid succession, and are suggestive of caprice unrivaled in naming the several objects. Fancy, mythologic lore, caprice, sentiment, history, all have contributed to the nomenclature employed, and not always with best results. The eternal fitness of things has not always been kept steadily in view. The Pillar of Hercules is a great matted series of stalactites which have grown entirely to the masses of stalagmite on the bottom, though the group is l)y no means solid. Aside from its size one could hardly imagine what suggested the name. Similar in its formation, ])ut yt't quite widely distinct in its integral members, appears next the Bridal Altar, in which thus far twelve weddings have occurred. The writer for- bears to tell you the story which the guide will surely repeat at this place, for something must be left to the faithful pilot who has taken you thus far on your jour- ney. Suffice it to say that the altar is made u]) of three separate stalactites, very large above and rjitlicr small below, which are so placed as to form a triangular chamber between them. One of these is the officiating clergyman, the others the chief actors in an important part of life's drama. Having passed the Bridal Altar we come to the end of the usually travch'd route and find ourselves on the ])row of a stec]) hill, but looking out into the impiMi;^- trablc darkness hcyoud. When we beeoiiie aecustoiiied to the gloom the faint illumination oT our lamps dis- closes a deep pit before us, backed by a great hill of 36 MAMMOTH CAVE. sandstoiu' to wliicli the name of Limitation Hill is given. This name was suggested by the fact that the great avenue into wliich Ave have entered is occluded by the mass of sandstone debris which forms the hill, a fact to be seen at one or another place in every great avenue of the cave. Projecting over the edge of tlie clitt' on which we are standing is a long and slender rock, the Lover's Lea]), though the name is not sug- gested by the occasional use of the Bridal Altar, near at hand. From the point of this rock the illumination, by means of Bengal lights, shows a wild and tumultu- ously grouped mass of rocks, and down them leads a narrow pathway which parties sometimes take to other wonders below. Tliis Hill of Difficulty leads to a narrow opening in the face of the cliff, fifty feet below us and on the left. The opening, which can not be seen from the brow of the hill, is high but narrow, and suddenly appears before us in the face of the solid rock. This is Elbow Crevice, much like the Fat ]\Ian's Misery, but lofty and the walls wrinkled and folded in many fan- tastic ways by the waters which have long since ceased to fall hi>re. The narrow i)atliway in the crevice skirts a shallow but ragged pit, the first we have seen upon this journey, called Joseph's Pit. Its ragged edge so hides the bottom that the passer-by fails to note the jagged sides of the pit unless he go close to the margin, which is, however, not without some danger. He then learns that he is passing over a thin slab of limestone which separates him from the space of the pit; but one is reassured when he discovers the ])ottom at some ten feet ])elow. Taking for a short distance the low avenue on the right we come to a limpid pool, in the bottom of IN GOTHIC AVENUE. An Alcove. The IClephants' Heads. ^-A W o <: O § THE ROUTE OF PITS AND DOMES. 37 a shallow basin, and this is the Cooling Tub. The yellow sands which make the tioor liere are suitable homes for the larval forms of the 1)1 ind beetles which here abound, and which may be seen scurrying away, disturbed by the heat of our lamps. In the waters of the Cooling Tub careful search may reveal a few snow- white crustaceans crawling over the bottom, but without eyes. Back again into the end of the crevice we come to the beginning of a larger hall, three quarters of a mile in length, where is the first dome we have seen, Napoleon's Dome. The huge rock under it and around which we pass is Gatewood's Dining Table, and is a great block of limestone detached from the very mid- dle of the apex above. We are here immediately under the Elephants' Heads of Gothic Avenue, and have passed under the Bridal Altar. The avenue along which we are to go is Gratz Avenue, entirely distinct as a geological feature from Gothic Avenue, of which it has usually been regarded a continuation. But it is at a much lower level and far later geologically than the one above us. A short distance beyond we come to Lake Purity, a small pool of water wliidi luis long been known to visitors to the cave by another inappropriate name bestowed by Doctor Ward, one of the first explorers of the cavern. So well deserved is the modern name that the visitor will certainly walk into it unless the guides check him. No breeze ever ruflles its mirrored surface, and no drop of water in-er fidls into it from above. It is supplied slowly by an almost imper- ceptible stream on one side, and this rarely ever raises its level. Twicc^ has the writer walked into it, though perfectly familiar with its surroundings. Past the little lake is the Cinder Bed, well named indeed, and some- 38 MAMMOTH CAVE. times, like the Arin-Chair of the gallery above, connected with the name of his Satanic Majesty and then known as the Devil's Ash-Pile. It is a mass of small rough limestone concretions or stalagmitic masses, cemented together by carbonate of lime. For a long distance the avenue winds now to the right, now to the left, keeping almost uniform height and width, with floor of rough rocks and broken stones, until the sound of falling w^aters reaches our ears. The visitor will pause to listen and to look. Whence they come he knows not, and this fact makes the sounds appear more uncanny still. But after he clambers down a small cliff he will wind suddenly to the right, and the low entrance to Annette's Dome is l)efore him. Entering this dome he will have his first view of the work of falling waters. I\Ierrily dashing from a hole in the face of the dome twenty or more feet above him and falling in a hundred sprays comes Shaler's Brook, running swiftly across the floor of the dome. Take up some of the pebbles in the bottom of this brook. Those soft and snow-white objects that yield to the slightest touch are the blind leeches which only have been found in this place and in Richardson's Spring. Per- chance a half dozen larger and darker ol)jects witli legs will move hastily after the drop of water which circles the stone as you turn it. These are the same kind of crustaceans as you saw in the Cooling Tub. But look up and around you. The walls are fluted and scored as by some gigantic graving tool. Here and there the harder layers of limestone jut out as sharp and serrated bosses partially obscuring the view toward the top. The dome will be seen to widen at the bottom and to shade off into a conical top, after C.^:CIDOTEA STYGIA (Packard). From Annette's Dome. Found only on the under side of pebbles. A perfectlj' transparent crustacean, as white as snow. BLIND MOI.U'SK. Related to the Melampus, a mollusk found in salt-water marshes. Found only in Mammoth Cave. Found and described by R. ]{. Call in 1S93, and Ijelieved to be the only true cave mol- lusk known in America. f Annette Dome. THE ROLTE OF PITS AND DOMES. 39 the manner of all others in Maiinnoth Cave. -The incessant sony of the little l)ruok makes a music here which is to be heard nowhere else in the cavern. But what becomes of it 'I Vv'ait a little. As the visitor turns to go from this dome, at the left and low down near the floor, the side wall will be seen to have disappeared. On bended knee it is possil)le to pass into a smaller dome, adjoining Annette's, and then we hear tlie silvery splash of the waters in regions yet lower down. It is sad to think Ave can not follow the little brook and see more of the mysteries of tiiis lower world. Out now we go, and as we are about to climb again the little cliff down which we descended we catch again the sound of falling waters, but this time with increased volume. Squeezing into a small opening under the little cliff on the right we may throw a light down a small crevice and find ourselves hanging on two thin sheets of limestone above a large dome, the bottom of which is filled with water and the sides of which are too remote to be seen. This is Lee's Cistern, and receives the waters of Shaler's Brook after a wild plunge of nearly seventy feet. The cistern is one of a large group of domes and pits whose more intimate accpiaintanee the visitor will make after a little, but at another place. Leaving the dome and cistei'n l)ehind us we retrace our sli'ps to the ]\lain Cave, by way of (Jothie Avenue, but will first note the great hill of sandstone debris which occludes Graf/ Avenue as we look on our right. Above it is a dome filled with huge blocks aud sand- stone debris; it is inaccessible. That hill is a famous place on which to collect "cave crickets," and an occasional s|)eciiiieii of blind myi'iapod may \h' taken. 40 MAMMOTH CAVE. We liave now retraced onr way, and are again in the ^\iun Cave. As we pass along this portion of the great avenue we will note the lofty walls and the grotesque figures of animals wliieli the deposits of manganese oxide on the walls and roof rudely simulate. Some of these are fairly imitative of the ohjects after which they are named; others require rather a vivid imagina- tion to see the objects supposed to be indicated. From this point on to the place called Ultima Thule there is little variety in the walls that ])ound the avenue, but there is a constant succession of instructive local- ities and marvelous views which serve well as means of learning the real history of the cavern. After walking a short distance beyond the entrance to the Gothic Avenue we come across the first large blocks of limestone which appear in the Main Cave. These are the Standing Rocks, so named from the fact that in falling they struck on their edge, and remain fixed in that position. The older name of the earliest explorers is suggestive of their aspect, for to them they appeared as a leg-of-mutton sail, and hence • arose the original name of the Sail-Boat. Later guides and all recent visitors know them simply as Standing Rocks, and by that name must they now be called. That they were detached from the ceiling is certain, though they are vastly greater in size than most rocks which are found in the avenues and derived from the ceiling. An accident discovered the remaining feature of interest before we reach the great sarcophagus-like rock which is near us on our right. This discovery came when two parties, one going out, the other enter- ing the cavern, passed in this locality. An illumination was in progress near the Saltpeter Vats, when, looking THE ROUTE OF PITS AND DOMES. 41 back, a statue was discovered as white and distinct as any Lot saw when his wife disobeyed the injunction and turned her gaze toward her okl home. It is not salt wliich we notice but an ilhiinined face of the cave cut off from full view by two interft'ring walls. The old-time style of the colonial dame appears before our very eyes, and "Martha Washington's Statue" com- mands our admiration from its exceeding fidelity to the profile of that distinguished "first lady of the land." While this object is but an illusion, it nevertheless interests us greatly and adds to our enjoyment from its very human aspect. On the right hand, lying close to the right wall of the cave, the visitor will note an immense rock, one of the largest single rocks known in the cavern, to which the name of Steamboat was formerly given. But this old name did not long survive; it was hardly suggestive enough of the underground world to suit the fancy of the visitor, and then, too, its resemblance to a boat was little indeed. But it does closely imitate, on near view from the path, an immense sarcophagus, or rather perhaps we should say casket, for the bui-ial of the dead. But did not tlie giants of okl, that peopled our boy's world and all fairyland, dwell in the eartli, and in caverns bristling witli l)on('S of victims and other suggestions of horrid underground feasts.' What more natural than that here should be buried one at least of that ancient race of giants, and so tourists have ever since told us, and wli;it all the world says is so must be so! We will accept the new name, manifestly so great an improvement on the older one, anet. 'IMie i)assage-way be- tween it and the wall from which it became detached is quite narrow ; a series of rude steps lead us down and into a circular room, tli(> bottom of which is cov- =>No\v included in Route T (from papc 45 to page 5S).— H. C. H. 46 MAMMOTH CAVE. ered with fine y(41()\v sand mixed at plaees with a quantity of small pebbles derived from a thin stratum of conglomerate which appears between the sandstone capping of the region and the Subcarboniferous lime- stone in wliich the cave is situated. This is the Wooden liowl Room, resembling somewhat an inverted wooden bowl of old-time pattern. Tradition has it that a wooden a])original l)owl was once found in this place, whence the origin of the name. The writer is, how- ever, disposed not to accept this origin of the name but to suggest that it came from the resemblance referred to. Although this room is small it opens on great possibilities in several directions, and should be observed with the greatest care. To the left you will note a low archway with well- trodden pathway; this is the beginning of Ganter Avenue, an account of which is given elsewhere in this Manual. To your right is a small opening, par- tially in the floor of the room and partially in the base wall. Tliis is the old "Dog Hole," now called the Steeps of Time. Down this we will go with con- siderable care by a rude stone stairway, aiding our un- certain feet by a firm hand-grasp on the wooden railing placed on the right. At all seasons of the year the snow-white festoons of Mucor, a low order of fungus, hanging at times in shreds a foot or more in length, at others covering the railing and the rocks surrounding with dense white patches of cottony fibers, give to the place its appearance of age or anti(iuity. The steps are veritably hoary with years! Safely down we are in the low and irregular Way to Pits and Domes. The entomologist of the party should The vSUir Chanil)er. » <#v, /f, 'A. ./}mi,.M/^^^/ ■ jM ,^ -vJ^ ^^^^"^ ,,,,, ^ // Plan of Harrison Hall. Section of Harrison Hall. By H. C. Ilovey. Plan of tha Labyrinth. By H. C. Hovey. THE ROUTE OF PITS AND DOMES. 47 here keep wide-open eyes, for this ground is famous for collecting. On the old timbers which he will find near the Way, under the damp, fiat rocks, running along the white walls or leaping away from the warmth of his lamp will go innumerable crickets and white eyeless spiders and thousand-legged worms and brown blind beetles. Down a short hill the first water on the Route of Pits and Domes is seen in Richardson's Spring, a locality of the greatest interest. The work of running water will l)e noticed on every liand. The miiuite stream which slowly fills the little pool called a spring has quietly dug for itself a narrow channel, and illus- trates the process which on gigantic scale has produced the cave itself. The spring contains many small crustaceans, and the flat rocks around shelter many interesting forms of blind insects. These will ])e more completely listed in another place in this ^Manual. Soon after passing this spring, on the right, will be discovered Side-Saddle Pit, so named from its supposed resemblance to a saddle. Above it rises ^Minerva's Dome, while into it falls, drop by dro]), the waters which are enlarging it and making it to rival its near-at- hand fellow. This is one of flic siiiallest pits wliidi the visitor will see on this roiiti'. But its \v;ills should be closely examined, and lie will discover how beautifully fluted and scoivd they are. At the bottom, fifty feet down, are masses of i-ocks detached from the overhanging dome, thirty-five^ feet above the observer. Just beyond the i)it will he iiolicc a famous ])]ace for l)lind beeth's and myriapods, and we secured large numbers ol' IhiMu. Returning to the Way of Pits and Domes, we pass along the margin of a narrow and deep crevasse worn into fhe solid rock and connecting, formerly, Gorin's Dcmie wifh the P>()tfomh'ss Pif. We will visif fhis affer our retui-n fi-oni th<' regions bex-ond Ihc nil. wliich is *As measured by the aid of a cluster of stiiaH l)alIoons. its ht.-it;lil was found to be i6o feet.— H. C. H. 52 :\IAMM0T11 CAVE. now nt luuid. A l)n(lgo, the Bridge of Sighs, enables the \isitor to stand over the very middle of this altyss, i'rom tlu' l)ottoin of ^vhieh comes up to him tlie sound of falling water. At most seasons of the year the bot- tom of the pit contains only old l)ridge timl)ers and large masses of rock, with some very smooth banks of mud. At others, when the subterranean rivers are at Hood, the left bottom i)ortion is iiUvd with water. This shows some connection with the Echo or other under- ground rivers, and also indicates that the commonly seen bottom of the pit is not as low down as Garvin '■3 Pit. From the bottom of this pit, for notwithstanding its name it has one, the view is rivaled only l)y that of (forin's Dome. Rising sheer al)0ve us to a height of one hundred and forty-five feet is Shelby's Dome, the top of the Bottomless Pit, named after the first Gov- ernor of Kentucky. The l)ridge overhead is garlanded and festooned with pcmdent masses of snow-white Mucor, while the light of the lamps we leave burning on the bridge show us the character of the fluted and fohled walls, in most places absolutely vertical. We think of Stephen Bishop, the colored guide, who first crossed this place in 1840, his support being a slender cedar sapling, afty! The dust of untold ages lies on the huge rocks, amid Avhich are found half-burnt bits of cane, which the guides assure us that the red men used to lill with bear's fat and l)urn in lieu of torches. Fragments of woven moccasins, and other remains, prove aboriginal visitation. Doctor Bird found these things, in 1837, filling the room "in astonishing, unaccouiital)le cpian- tities." The statement made by the early managers is that great l)onfires of these coml)iis1ilil('s were kiiidlcl to illuiniiiati' the iiioiinlaiii and the donii'. l>ut it is au 66 MAMMOTH CAVE. open question as to the motives that led the dusky aborigines to fre(|ucut this mysterious chamber. Did tliey liere hold prehistoric councils? Did they find amid this rocky fortress a safe refuge from pursuing foes ? Or were these earliest visitors, like the latest, led hither by simple curiosity? The first white explorers are said to have found aboriginal implements, pottery, blankets of woven l)ark, and other relies not unlike those found amid the cliff dwellings of Arizona. But who brought them to this subterranean hall, and whence came they, and when, and what was their fate, are problems for the archaeologist. Pondering these mysteries we reluctantly leave the Chief City, with its assemblage of nooks and rocks, alcoves and monu- mental ruins, all aglow in the light of chemical fires, and overarched by that marvelous dome, which, as every observant visitor has remarked, seems to follow us in retiring, as the sky bends its canopy of blue over the moving traveler. It is possibly a mile from the Chief City to the terminus of the cave in tliis direction. "What meets the eye is a repetition of what we have already seen, only the rocks are if possil)le more teetering, and the task more wearisome of claml)ering over the piles of loose and irregular slabs of limestone. At intervals we are rewarded by spacious domes only less grand than that we have just been admiring. St. Catherine City is made by the intersection of two avenues. That on our right is the Symmes' Pit Branch, and ends in a funnel-shaped pit, called a "well," but dry now. The left-hand ])ranch leads to the Blue Spring, and has a good path made by the removal of the rocky frag- ments. This painstaking work has been ascribed to the THE MADs CAVE ROUTE. 67 Indians, but it was probably done hy tbe old saltpeter miners in their search for ''peter-dirt." Neither of these branches will repay tlie ordinar.y visitor for exploration. Resuming our way from fSt. Catlierine City, we presently come to two very l)eautit'ul domes, whose tloors are covered with fine sand, and whose smooth walls arise symmetrically to an oval ceiling. As their former names were meaningless and inai)i)ropriate, we obtained permission to rename them. The lirst we christened Waldach's Dome, in honor of the late Charles Waldach, of Cincinnati, the jiioneer in the work of subterranean i^hotography, and who, as he told the writer, consumed five hundred dollars' worth of inag- nesium in taking some fifty views by tiui old-fashioned "wet process." The other dome we named Ilains' Dome, in honor of our friend, ]\Ir. Ben Hains, of New Albany, Indiana, who carried to perfection the task ]Mr. Waldach began under certain disadvantages, and whose explorations have also added materially to our knowledge of the mazes of ]\Iannnoth Cave. Beyond these lovely domes we tread an ascending path over more tilting slabs, bending our heads low to avoid concussion against tlie roof. We are in the Garret, where salts abound like those we found in \\\r Snow Room. (Crystals hang from the i-oof and also spring from the earth in graceful forms. We p;is.s ;i piK- of sandstone rocks and approach a wall ol' e of further ])rogress, and named the 6S MAM. MOTH CAVE. locality 'Tltiiiia 'riiiilc. " l>ut siibsoquent exploration has proved our name for it a misnomer. A young German came from Berlin to America, in 1908, in order to learn our language and to acquaint liiuisclf with our country. Ilis name was Max Kaemper. lie visited ^lammoth Cave, only intending to stay a few days; l)ut prolonged his sojourn for eight months, dur- ing which i)eriod he made as complete an exploration of the cave as possible, with the expert assistance of Edward Bishop, as guide. Certain indications led them to suspect that a "tumble-down" in Sandstone Avenue might be identical with the pile of sandstone we had o))served at Ultima Thule. Accordingly they attacked a limestone crawl-way near the latter and patiently re- moved the blocks of stone, not without some personal risk, till they had wormed their way through to an oval hall, one hundred and sixty feet long by one hundred and twenty feet wide and sixty feet in height. This place was afterward named, for its discoverer, Kaemper Hall. They had been led onward by the music of an unseen waterfall, which was found to precipitate itself into what they named, for the guide. Bishop's Pit. They named another abyss for ]\Ir. Norman A. Parrish, the Parrish Pit. There are in all eleven pits. A short passage, fifty steps to the right, where is now fixed an iron gate, opens into Elizabeth's Dome, a symmetrical room seventy-five feet wide and as many high, ascending by vaulted arches to a circle at the apex, the name being given in honor of a sister of Mr. Kaemper. The Grand Portal leading out from it is an arch sixty feet wide and fifty feet high, commanding a general view of the wonderful region christened "Violet The iMarbk' 'iV-mplc. THE :main cave route. 69 City," in recognition of Mrs. Violet Blair Janin, the wife of Judge Albert Covington Janin, and one of the })rincipal owners of the Mammoth Cave estate. Kaeniper said the place reminded him of what the old German mythology called the "Walhalla," the abode of the demigods. I>engal lights were ignited here and there, and an aiitomoljile searchlight came to the aid of my smaller acetylene hand-lamp, thus well illuminating this wonder- ful region, which we found to be, by measurement, two hundred and fifty feet long by one hundred and twenty-five feet wide, a worthy rival of the Chief City and Wright's Rotunda as to size, while far ex- celling them in beauty. Following a rude pathway on our left we reached a sandstone tumble-down that gave color to the theory that some locality like "Sandstone Avenue" was near. A rich overflow of onyx binds the fallen blocks together. By permission explosives were used at this point, until the indications made the manager feel that the process was quite as likely to burst to the surface as into Sandstone Avenue, and ac(H)rdingly he called a lialt. The result of continued effort would have been desirable in either event. In the one case an exit to the surface would have made it possible to return to the hotel by coacli, and in the other a return by the Long Route would luive been made practicable, without a wearisome tramp over paths already traversed. Sound-tests by Kaemper and Bishop were agreed upon, to ascertain whether Violet City and Sand- stone Avenue were neighbors. At a fixed moment, by the watch, revolvers were fired; but their reports were inaudible, lilows on the walls, however, were faintly 70 MAMMOTH CAVE. heard. Sound iniglit travel far tlirouyh crevices in the rocks; as Avas proved by the fact that, whih,' in the Chief Cit}', Ave heard i)hiinly tiie steam cars of the ^Nlannnoth Cave Railway. Violet City is rich in dripstone. Stalactites and stalagmites are seen by the thousand, and of every imaginable shape and color. The Chimes are stalactites that emit musical sounds, enabling one to play simple melodies by percussion. There are masses of fluted white onyx decked with brilliant crystals. Grotesque objects amuse us; for instance a bit of red onyx called the Ripe Tomato, and another formation named the Beer ^lug because resembling a tankard of foaming ale. Thus far these, and other still more rare treasures, have been guarded from such vandal hands as have defaced or robbed too many curious and beautiful formations else- where. This new discovery is a cause for congratulation. Hil/herto Mammoth Cave has been noted for its paucity of stalactitic decoration; but the formations in Violet City are marvelous, and remind the visitor of the splendors of Luray and the Grottoes of Shendun. After sui'feiting ourselves with this palace of beauty we have IK) short cut provided for us, but are obliged to go back ;is we came in, treading wearily the entire length of the Main Cave, yet richly rewarded by our recollections of the miracles in stone we have seen. n THE RIVER ROUTE TO THE MAELSTROM AND HOVEY'S CATHEDRAL THE River Koute has no equal of its kind in the known subterranean world. Its features are so unlike those of the Main Cave and the region of pits and domes as to make it seem an altogether different cavern — which indeed it really is. For the Mammoth Cave, instead of being one vast excavation, is a congeries of caverns, whose walls and floors were thinned by the action of water till they were broken through into one immense and intricate labyrinth. Just as the visitor to Niagara wants to see the Canadian as well as the American Falls, to gaze on the impetuous rapids above as well as the tremendous whirlpool below the cataract, and to crown it all hy a ride on the Maid of the Mist amid the seething caldron and sheets of spray, so the visitor to Niagara's rival, the wonderful ^Mammoth Cave, should take time to explore every route that is open for the pul)lic, and he will be amply repaid by an experience that will enrich a lifetime. The River Route, now known as Route IV, often styled ''the Long Route," extends to Hovey's Cathedral and the Maelstrom. It is certainly "long" as compared with the other routes; but no one in ordinary vigor should forego its remarkable scenes, utterly unlike any- thing found elsewhere. There are frequent stops at points of special interest, an ample recess for a mid-day luncih, and an interval of repose during the boat- ride on Echo River. ProiVssor PI. A. Newton, of Yale University, Doctor A. E. Foote, of Phila- delphia, together with the senior author of this Manual, made an approximate measurement of the dis- 72 MAMMOTH CAVE. tanee from the mouth of the cave to the end of the route at Croghan's Ilall, and agreed in making it four miles and a half, not including the length of Echo River, which we had at the time no means of deter- mining. In other words, the trip in and out would require about nine miles of walking, and the time usually allowed for it, including the boat-ride and the various stops, is eight or nine hours.* The fact should also be remembered that the spirits are sustained by the exhilarating cave atmosphere, which is as pure as can be found on any ordinary mountain top, as well as by the great variety and novelty of the perpetually changing subterranean scenery. The River Route might be taken by itself apart from the other trips below ground; but it is more commonly reserved for the second day's excursion, and as a delightful sequel to the shorter routes that have already been described. "We will imagine, therefore, that the visitor has explored the jNIain Cave and Gothic Avenue and the region of pits and domes, and has had a good night's rest at the hotel, before accompanying us on this new quest of adventure. Down the valley again we go, led by the guides into the mouth of the cavern, under the thick horizontal plates of limestone, from whose green, mossy ledge the wild pattering rill falls forever with nnisic on the rocks below. What l)ecomes of it? No pool or stream is visible, but the cascade instantly disappears. An ice- house was formerly here, in the days of Doctor Crog- han, and the excavation made for that purpose reveals the walls of a chasm that extends far ])elow the accu- *This does not include a visit to Hovey's Cathedral, for which a longer time must be allowed. < O THE RIVER ROUTE. 73 mulatioii of rocky fragments and indurated clay along which our pathway runs. We are really walking near the roof of a huge hall, like Dixon's Cave, but tluit is now filled by debris. The true cavern floor is hidden from sight by the Ijroken rocks through whose confused spaces the cascade finds its mysterious way to the gen- eral drainage level and gathering-bed of subterranean waters, to which the deepest pits likewise cut their way, and which we are now about to approach l)y a more convenient route. There are three ways of reaching the region of the lakes and rivers. Each has its advantages and its dis- comforts. Tourists who go in one way usually come out another, for the sake of variety. The first way, and the shortest, is through the opening known as the Corkscrew, near what are termed the Kentucky Cliffs, on our left and beyond the Rotunda. The other two ways are reached by going through Dante's Gateway, near the Giant's Coffin, and entering the Wooden Bowl Room. A passage to the left, from this room, is the beginning of Ganter Avenue, which leads beyond the rivers. }iy turning to the right, instead, and crossing the Bottomless Pit, we come to the Scotchman's Trap and the Fat Man's ]\Iisery, by going through which we enter River Hall. Each of these three ways will receive a more full description, in the order in which they have just been named : the Corkscrew, Ganter Avenue, and tlie Fat j\Ian's ]\Iisery. The Corkscrew is an intricate web of fissures, known as long ago as 18:}7, l)ut not as a passage to Rivor Hall, which liad not yet l)een discovered. In one of the oldest i)ublished descriptions of the ^Mammoth Cave it is stated that "among the Kentucky Cliffs, just under 74 MAMMOTH CAVE. the ceiling, is a gap in the Avail into which you can scramble and make your way clown a chaotic gulf, creeping like a rat, under and among loose rocks, to the depth of eighty or ninety feet — provided you do not break your neck before you get half-way." That is a very graphic description of the Corkscrew as it is to-day, allowing for the improvements since made by removing obstructions and building stairways here and there, so that the passage is much more safe and prac- ticable than formerly. William Garvin, the guide, was the tirst man to make his way completely through, in 1871, to Bandit's Hall, and thence to the River Hall. Those availing themselves of the Corkscrew have the satisfaction of reducing materially the length of the River Route, as compared wuth other approaches. It is in itself interesting, as already explained, as giving an example of an enormous pit that has somehow been filled up with gigantic ])locks of limestone. Ganter Avenue is the name now given to a com- bination of smaller avenues, effected by sixteen months of hard labor und(n* the direction of ^Manager H. C. Ganter. It was platted in :\larch, 1891, by H. C. Hovey and Ben Hains. Its total length, as measured by them, is eighty-five hundred feet from the AYooden Bowl Room to Serpent Hall; while the direct distance between those points is only about thirty-two hundred feet. Some of the guides first Avormed their way through in September, 1879, and as they proved it to be possible for those caught beyond the rivers in a time of flood thus to escape to the surface, I named the new discovery "Welcome Avenue." But by authority of the owners I changed the name to its present form, in 1891, as a recognition of the tireless energy and skillful THE RIVER ROUTE. 75 engineering of ^Manager Ganter, who thus overcame obstacles that seemed almost insurmountable.. The avenue as it now exists really cuts through three of the five tiers of ]\Iammoth Cave. The passage, for a long distance, though forty feet high, was extremely crooked and also very narrow at the bottom. The latter difficulty was removed by laying a solid stone floor midway between the bottom and the top, thus making a wider path, though even now it is narrow enough to try one's patience. j\Iany roughnesses were removed from the walls by judicious pounding and blasting; though enough knobs remain to serve as specimens of those that were formerly so numerous and exasperating. A remarkable stone stairway of one hundred steps, called "Rider Haggard's Flight," con- nects the three levels of the cavern, as mentioned above. There are branches leading from Ganter Ave- nue to various domes and pits and lovely crystal cham- bers, all inaccessible, however, to the general visitor. The main advantage of this avenue is that it enables the guides to take parties safely through to the end of the cave, at any time of the year, and regardless of the stage of water in the lakes and rivers. Otherwise we would hardly advise visitors to attempt this i)assage, unless they are resolute pedestrians and are willing to endure some degree of fatigue in search of adventure. The third way of reaching River Hall, and the one usually followed either going in or coming out, is by crossing the Bottomless Pit and going tlirough Vat Man's ]Misery. We leave behind us Pensico Avenue with its noble archways. Resonator Hall, and other attractions generally included in another route. We may, if we have time and inclination, turn aside for a 7G .MAMMOTH CAVE. few stei)s and follow the narrow and winding passage to the left that leads back to a ledge near the middle of the Bottomless Pit, whence w'e also catch a glimpse of openings into Seylla and Charybdis. This is one of the most awe-inspiring spots in the entire cave. But our direct path leads us through the tortuous channel to which the too appropriate cognomen of the Fat Man's Misery has long been given, in spite of every protest from those whose preference would be for some more poetical appellation. The walls of this serpentine channel are about eighteen inches apart, while the average space between the sandy floor and the stub- born rock overhead is only five feet. The channel changes its direction eight times in the two hundred and thirty-six feet of its length ; and in the latter part of its course the floor comes up and the roof comes down to l)other tall men as well as fat ones. Yet, after all, the difficulties of the passage are usually exagger- ated, and it is doubtful if many visitors have ever proved too fat or too tall to get safely through by the kindly aid of the guides. Allowance must be made for the funny stories by which the trip is enlivened. Do not fail, amid your jokes and laughter, to notice how beau- tifully the rocky sides of the Fat ^Nlan's ^Misery are marked with waves and ripples, as if running water had suddenly been caught and petrified. At last we will- ingly emerge from the too close embrace of the rocky walls into a room fitly called '^' Great Relief," where we may straighten our spines and enjoy the luxury of a fuH breath. Bacon Chamber, near by, offers a striking example of natural mimicry. Masses of limestone hang down like rows of hams and shoulders and sides of bacon in ON THE RlVlvR ROUTE. Fat Man's Misery. I" Cleavela.ul's Cal.i>u-1. As ^1 ON THE RIVER'ROUTE. The Bacon Chamber. End of River Route, Victoria's Crown. In White Cave. THE RIVER ROUTE. 77 a packing-house. The Odd Fellows' Links, the Atlantic Cable, and other concretions found along the crevices in the ceiling of the main avenue are all stalactitic. These grotesque shapes lead us to ask if the reader has ever noticed the true meaning of that word "grotesque," like what is found in grottoes; just as "picturesque" is like what we see in pictures. We are now fairly within River Hall,* which really extends for miles, if understood to include all the ram- ifications of the passage-ways of the subterranean waters. Indeed, these come no one knows whence, flow no one knows whither, and emerge no one knows where. Conjectures have been made, some of them plausible, but positive knowledge of the mysterious sul)ject is yet to be gained. It is known, in a general way, that these are the gathering-beds of thousands of sink-holes opening down from the surface ; and that they come to the open air again in localities like the Upper and Lower Big Springs. But precisely what sink-holes and what springs are thus concerned, who really knows? The subterranean currents are capricious and contrary, now flowing one way and then another, obedient to local changes in hydrostatic level. No one who has ever seen them in their glory and their terrible flood-force can accept the theory that they find an adequate outlet in the springs just named. Those deep, bubbling pools, lying along the bank of Green River, under cliffs l)ristling with cedar and pine, are always submerged when that river is flooded. At such times, likewise, the cave rivers are flooded, forming a vast, continuous body fully two miles long, varying from *River Hall is now exhibited on Route I, and passed over more rapiiUy in connection with Route IV. 78 MAMMOTH CAVE. thirty to sixty feet in depth, and sometimes even more than tliat. Torrents empty into them through the numberless sink-holes. Every cascade in the cavern adds its quota to the result. The tlood may suddenly rise, but it more slowly retires, the subsidence of the waters being with a powerful suction causing eddies and wliirlpools. There must be somewhere a suitable exit for this vast and tunudtuous l)ody of water. Such an outlet is visible five miles below ^lammoth Cave, only it is on the wrong side of Green River, where a torrent bursts from the rocks with force enough to turn the wheels of a mill. The problem will probably be solved by a more careful exploration of the right side of Green River. We may say, in passing, that the theory held by Edmund F. Lee, C. E., that the accu- mulated waters of Mammoth Cave occupy a l)ed lower than Green River, and ultimately empty into the Ohio River, or even into the Atlantic Ocean, is proved to be entirely erroneous by means of l^arometric observations that have been made. Our pathway skirts the edge of a cliff sixty feet high, under which reposes an isolated pool to whose sullen water the name of the Dead Sea is given. An iron railing guards the way for about a hundred feet, when we descend a flight of steps to a lower terrace. If we venture down to the margin and taste the water of the pool we shall find it sweet, instead of bitter like that of its Oriental namesake. Turning a few steps to the right we find a cascade which has been regarded as a reappearance of the waterfall at the mouth of the cave, although of this there is hardly sufficient proof. The cascade precipitates itself into a funnel-shaped hollow THE RIVER ROUTE. 79 of silt, and vanishes under a massive mud-covered lime- stone ledge. In this vicinity the writer found, in 1881, a natural mushroom bed, tliat suggested the idea of a mushroom farm here, similar to those in France, whence thou- sands of bushels are annually marketed. My suggestion met with favor, and extensive beds were laid out in Audubon Avenue, on which many thousands of dollars were spent ; but with meagre results for lack of suitable irrigation. There is no reason why the plan should not work well by proper methods. The topic of eyeless fish and other aquatic inhabi- tants of the cave streams would naturally be treated here; but the reader is referred to the special chapters on cavern fauna for the desired information. While speculating as to cascades, mushrooms, and blind fish we were startled on the occasion of our first visit by hilarious sounds that heralded the approach of another party. There never was a prettier sight than this merry company when they finally emerged from the darkness, sixty in all, with flashing lamps and spangled costumes. They wound past us along the sombre terrace, astonishing the gnomes by their jolly shouts and jovial songs. On tliey went, single file, behind a wall of stone, to come into view again on a natural bridge over the River Styx. The details of the wild scene were brought to light as they swung tlieir lamps in order to catch sight of the mysterious l);inks on which we stood below them. The estimated length of the River Styx, whose black waters wind their way between the steep walls and underneath the bridge, is about four hundred feet, and its breadth is not far from forty feet. Formerly it had to be crossed by boats, but 80 MAMMOTH CAVE. now it is done l)y the natural l)ri(lge just mentioned. Tlie spot was dangerous before a guard-rail was erected. Among the thrilling stories told of cave adventures is that told by William, the guide, of Professor Silliman's slipping from the bridge. The savant would have fallen into the Styx had not the brave guide sprung to the rescue. On descending from the bridge we enter a lofty and spacious hall, where we find the placid waters of Lake Lethe, a body about as large as the Styx, and which was also formerly crossed by a ])(>at. It is now partly filled with debris, allowing the construction of a narrow path along its margin to the pontoon that bridges its neck. From this we step upon a beach of the finest yellow sand. This is the Great Walk to the Echo River, a distance of some four hundred yards. The ceiling here is not far from ninety feet high, and is most beautifully mottled with black and white limestones, like snow- clouds in a wintry sky. By igniting magnesium we get the wonderful effect in its splendor. Thus we also descry the marvelous masque of Shakespeare overhead. The actual likeness to the renowned Bard of Avon is striking. The Great Walk is only five feet above low water mark, and is submerged during the rainy season. Usually it is in good order during the months when tourists are most apt to visit the cave. As we walk along it let us keep a sharp watch for the Camhanis pellucidus, the blind and white crawfish for which the cave is noted. The earliest mention of it is the following : "The river is a stream of water twenty feet wide and thej^ say as many deep. It was discovered only P5 w ^ c THE RIVER ROUTE. 81 about a year ago. Jts current is very shiggi^ij^ .^j. j,.^j^ been proved by launching a piece of wood bearing a. lighted candle on its bosom. We were informed that a species of wJiite fish were found here without eyes, and the keeper of the hotel assured us that he himself had seen them, but that their other senses were so acute the slightest touch of water overhead was suf- ficient to alarm them and make them dart off like lightning." Davidson describes the canoe in which visitors would row a short distance till stopped by a rocky barrier. Two of his acquaintances resolved to pass this barrier. "Accordingly, lifting the skiff over the rock, they launched it on the other side, and rowed, as they thought, for two miles. They beheld a great many new scenes and chambers never explored before. They also saw some of the white fish. As for us, on our visit, we were not favored with a sight of these natural curiosities." (Extract from a Report read before the Society of Adelphi of Transylvania Univer- sity, January 16, 1840, by Reverend R, Davidson.) This was two years previous to Dekay's description, in 1842, and wliich is credited ])y Agassiz with being the first scientific mention of these interesting fish. The first persons who ever crossed these waters were Steplien Bishop, the guide, accomi)anied by Pro- fessor Brice Patton, a teacher in the Louisville Asylum for the Blind, and Mr. John Craig, of Philadelphia. Those wlio now cross so gayly and with such manifest delight can hardly realize the degree of courage demanded for that first voyage of discovery across these subterranean waters. JMention of the Asylum for the Blind reminds us that at various times a number of blind people have visited IMammotli Cave. 82 MAMMOTH CAVE. Matt piloted a party of tliem through in 1880; and it was remarkable to hear them speak without any sense of incongruity of what they had seen, and about wliieli they were as enthusiastic as any others. A fleet of flat-])oats awaits us on Echo River, or on Lake Lethe in case of high water backing in from Green River. These boats are built of planks and timbers brought in by way of the Crevice Pit and Mammoth Dome; though formerly every piece had to come in by the Fat IMan's Misery. When not in use the fleet is moored by chains, though grapevines w-ere used at the time of our first visit. Ropes are not strong enough to hold the boats in time of flood. Each boat has seats on the gunwales for twenty passengers, who set their lamps down in a row in the middle of the craft. The guide stands in the bow and propels the boat hy a long j^addle, or l)y grasping rocks projecting from the ceiling. Usually but a slight cur- rent is to be noticed. Hence the singular inaccuracy of an imaginative picture by a French artist that has been extensively copied, representing the river as bois- terous, and frantic oarsmen striving Avith might and main to keep the boat from shipwreck on the rocks. And as the only gale here is that which blows out from the mouth of the cave, there is equal absurdity in a striking picture that shows sail-boats on this calm and unruffled tide. There are four arches, through either of which we may launch on Echo River. The first arch is only about three feet above low water, and if the river has risen a little, it is necessary to go on to the second, third, or fourth arch. In doing this we cross the Sandy Desert and flounder through a mudd.y place THE RIVER ROUTE. 83 named Purgatory. As has already been stated, there is a current of varying strength when the river rises above low water niark. The last time we were there the guide made no use of his paddle, relying on the cur- rent and his pointed staff to take us through. Once a party of journalists swamped their boat, but were rescued by the courage and presence of mind of both themselves and Nelson, their guide. Such mishaps are rare. The voyage is usually replete with pleasure and with none but agreeable adventures. The archway over- head varies from five to thirty feet, while the plummet shows about an equal variation in the depth of the water over whose bosom we float. According to the barometer the surface is about twenty feet al)ove the level of Green River, though observations differ, some making it more and others less than we have stated. The width of Echo River varies from twenty to two hundred feet, and its length is pro])ably about half a mile. The stream can not properly be said to have any shore, as, except at tlie landing places, the rocks come abruptly down to the water. Along the margin are a myriad cavities, from a few inches to many feet in diameter, that have been washed out by the stream. These cavelets gave a wag who was in our party the first time we crossed the stream his coveted opportunity for a joke. "Oh, see these little bits of caves — three for five cents," were his silly Vt'ords. The solemn echoes caught them up and bore them, as if in derision, hither and thither and far away, till he was ashamed of himself. When tlic ])('als of laughter tliat followed had also died away, a quiet lady in ])lack velvet cave costume, with tiny sleigh-bells along the edge to 84 MAMMOTH CAVE. help i)eople to find hrr in case she got lost, sang the "Sweet Bye and Bye," and the echoes were singularly sweet and pleasing. Then some one fired off a revolver, and the report rebounded tremendously from rock to rock. A native Kentuckian favored us with the famous "Rebel Yell," which was re-echoed as if a regiment was rallied from the recesses of the cavern. Flute music awoke delicious reverberations, and the cornet brought out corresponding effects. The tones of a full chord struck in quick succession brought back a sweep- ing arpeggio. It should be explained that this symmetrical pas- sage-way does not give back a distinct echo, as the term is commonly used; l)ut gives a melodious pro- longation of sound for from ten to thirty minutes after the original impulse. The tunnel has a certain key- note of its own, which, when firmly struck, excites harmonics with tones of incredible depth and sweet- ness, the lov.-est of them reminding one of the profound undertone heard in the tremendous music of Niagara. The most extraordinary elfccts are produced when Echo River is allowed to speak for itself, and can only be had when the party is willing to maintain utter silence. The method is simply by the guide's agitating the water by rocking the boat and striking the water vigorously with his paddle. The first sound to break the intense stillness is like the tinkling of myriads of tiny silver bells. Then larger and heavier bells take up the harmony as the waves seek out the cavities in the rocky wall. Then it is as if all chimes of all cathedrals had conspired to raise a tempest of sweet sounds. These die away to a whisper, followed by mutterings and a noise as if of an angry multitude, THE KIVER ROUTE. 85 mingled with unearthly shrieks. Alarmed, we are ready to go to the rescue; ])ut the guide inotions to us to keep quiet and await what is to follow. We sit in expectation. Lo, as if from some deep recess that had hitlicrto been forgotten, comes a tone tender and profound; after which, like gentle memories, are reawakened all the mellow sounds, the silver bells, the alarm bells, the chiming cathedral bells, till River Hall rings again with the wondrous, matcliless harmony. As we land at Rocky Inlet the melody of a cascade greets us, whose falling water breaks into liquid pearls on the ledges. This is Cascade Hall. An opening on our right leads to Roaring River, a succession of shallow ripples and deep basins, navigable only by a canoe that can be carried over the i)ortages. It has a remarkal^le echo, and offers points of interest to the scientist, but is never visited by ordinary tourists.* Silliman's Avenue contains numerous places worthy of note. We tirst come to singular shelf-like projec- tions called Wellington's Galleries. Then, at the Drip- ping Spring, we find the only stalactites seen since entering River Ilall. Tlie ])aucity of tliese natural ornamentations is exphiined elsewhere in this Manual. The guides, with slight regard for reverence, have named the next localities, in succession, the Infernal Regions, Pluto's Dome, and Old Scratch Hall. We leave them to justify their choice of names as best they may, and the tourist who disputes them will find that they are equal to the occasion. For instance, the ceil- ing in Old Scratch Hall is ninrked ;ill over in a most extraordinary manner, which the guides assui-e us was done as a deed of darkness by the lv.il One, although it ♦Here now ends Route I, the rest of this chapter belonging to Route IV. 86 MAMMOTH CAVE. looks very much as if they had done it themselves with the tips of their spiked staffs. But the trails of the serpents in Serpent Hall are plainly freaks of nature, and are very singular. There are many of these wind- ing grooves in the ceiling. Here is the high water mark of Echo River in time of flood. And here, also, is the inner termination of Ganter Avenue, which runs from this place to the "Wooden Bowl Room, near the Giant's Coffin, and affords an exit for any unlucky tourist who may be caught i)eyond the rivers during a sudden rise of their waters — a thing, hy the way, that seldom happens. The Valley Way 8ide-cut is mainly interesting for its profusion of gypsum crystals that grow in the niches along the walls, and are dug from the ground like potatoes. After descending the Hill of Fatigue we come to the facsimile of an enormous ocean steamer with her rud- der hard aport; and as the unique resemblance was first noticed at the time of the launching of the pon- derous Great Eastern, this was fitly christened the Great Western. Beyond it is the Valley of Flowers; and then Silliman's Avenue, which we have been trav- ersing, ends in Ole Bull's Concert Hall, where the renowned Norwegian violinist once gave a musical entertainment. Just before reaching this hall, how- ever, we notice on our left the entrance to Rhoda's Arcade, not included in the regular route. It leads by a winding and picturesque path, about five hundred yards in length, easily followed, to one of the most symmetrical domes in ^Mammoth Cave. The arcade is about ten feet high, and in many places the walls are incrusted with fine crystals of gypsum. Lucy's Dome, THE RIVER ROUTE. 87 thus reached, is about sixty feet in diameter and per- haps a hundred feet high, although enthusiastic admirers have credited it with thrice that altitude. The sides are composed of immense curtains reaching from the floor to the dim vault above. A twin-dome near by is •connected with it l)y a tall archway. During our visit in 1896 we had the guides l)uru red fire in this window, thus illuminating both domes. The entire group is known as the Jessup Domes. El Ghor is a wild, rugged pass, on a lower level than Silliman's Avenue. It meanders through the lime- stone like the dry bed of an ancient river. Overhead are the Hanging Rocks that never fall, though forever threatening to do so. In Fly Chamber, on the walls and rocks, are myriads of tiny crystals of black gypsum, each about the size of a house-fly. The Sheep-shelter is a rock .jutting from the left wall for ten feet, and expanding for twenty feet in length. Victoria's Crown, sixteen feet in diameter, is on our right. Boone Avenue leads off to the left. Corinna's Dome is directly over El Ghor. The Black Hole of Calcutta is an ugly pit twenty feet deep. Stella's Dome, which resembles Lucy's Dome, is reached by an avenue to the left. The guides also point out the :Mule-stall, the Anvil, the Chimes, and other grotesque objects. Hebe's Si)i'ing, four feet wide and a foot or more deep, is said to be supplied with pure water at the top and sulphur water below. J'>oone Avenue, on our left, was for ycjirs hlocki'd by a stone stairway now removed. We sluill prc-cully describe discoveries iiuule in 1007 in this (iii-cctiou. But now, through an iinin\iting hob', we cliiiil) to Mary's Vineyard. A staladil*' winds fi-oin ceiling to Hoor, and is called the Grapevine Ai-ound it are countless nodules S8 MAMMOTH CAVE. of ealeiiuu carbonate coated with black oxide of iron, which simulate clusters on clusters of luscious grapes, gleaming with varied tints through the dripping dew. No covetous hand is permitted to pluck this subterranean vintage. By a detour through Elindo Avenue one may reach a natural chapel named by a priest the Holy Sepulchre. The walls are dark and bare, but in the vicinity are some fine stalactites. We are in an upper ti( r of caverns. AVashington Hall is a locality toward which we have for some time cast our longing eyes, not on account of its beauty, but because it is the usual dining-place for parties taking the Long Route. It is somewhat circu- lar in shape and one hundred feet in longest diameter. Its walls are smoke-stained, and the tloor is strewn with the relics of hundreds of dining-parties, while along its margin is a rampart of broken bottles left there by prohibitionists and others, once filled with milk, cold coffee, or other beverages. With appetites whetted by vigorous exercise and the bracing cave-air we fall to in primitive style and partake of the repast provided for us, forgetful of the fact that we are far below the brave sunshine and the verdant forests, and only mindful that we are hungry mortals. While we dine the guides trim our lamps and replenish them from cans of oil that are kept near by for the purpose. Snowball Room comes next beyond Washington Hall. Its ceiling is thickly dotted with hemispherical masses of snowy gypsum, each ])eing from two to ten inches in diameter. The effect is as if a crowd of merry school-})oys had flung a thousand snowballs against the wall, which stuck there as mementos of their sport. O H ?0 ►< n o c > r r> Tl o ».^ ?3 i-t-l g I™* > n .-I a: ^ o ^ A* «• o ^ s w S < > o 72 < ^ o in o < :; 2: W >< > sa d 2 w be u o x; CJ T3 w H O W > w :^ o THE RIVER ROUTE. 89 A charming side-trip occasional!}' taken is down Marion Avenue for a mile or more, over a clean, sandy floor, and under a cloudy ceiling. It has two branches : one to the left, leading to Zoe's Grotto, and the other to the right, through Paradise, with its fair and crystal- line flowers, to Portia's Parterre. Digby's Dome has no special attractions, l)ut is geologically interesting because it cuts through to the ui)per sandstone. Cleaveland's Cabinet, which we next enter, is a long and singularly magnificent avenue, named for the late Professor Cleaveland, of Bowdoin College, the famous mineralogist. This treasure-house of alabaster ])rillian(;s was discovered hy Stephen Bishop, accompanied b}^ Messrs. Patten and Craig. It was first described by Professor John Locke, ]\r. D., of Cincinnati, in a com- munication to the American Journal of Science and Art, in 1841, from data furnished him by Mrs. Anderson, a daughter of ]\Ir. Nicholas Longworth. Doctor Locke was delighted with the gypsum rosettes exhibited for his inspection, some of which, he says, were a foot in diameter, whose acanthus-like leaves roll elegantly out- ward from a central disk; and he gave them the name of "oulopholites," or curled-leaf-stones. We wander bewildered under symmetrical archc; of fifty feet span, where the fancy is charmed l)y the natural mimicry of every fiower that grows in garden, forest, or prairie, from the nodding ])ansy to the Haunt- ing helianthus. Vai'ious n;imes are given to the diffei"- ent portions of the general avenue, sucli as Flora's Garden, ]\lary's Bower, Floral Cross, L;ist Ixose of Summer, Vale of I )iaiii()ii(is. Marble Hall, Diamoud Grotto, Gem Hall, and Cliariotte's Grotto. From any one of these take a single cave flower and examine its 90 MAMMOTH CAVE. queenly petals, and it will give a good idea of all the rest. Each rosette is made up of countless tibrous crystals; each tiny crystal is in itself a study; each fascicle of curved 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, not for a few yards but for two magnificent miles, including all the crystalline region of which Cleaveland's Cabinet is only a portion. Indeed, these necessary names come to seem intrusive and trivial. All is virgin white, except here and there a patch of gray limestone, or a spot bronzed by metallic stain, or as we purposely vary the lovely monotony l)y burn- ing chemical lights. We admire the eifective grouping done by nature's skillful fingers. Here is a great cro^^s made by a mass of stone rosettes; while floral coro- nets, clusters, wreaths, and garlands embellish nearly every foot of the ceiling and walls. The overgrown ornaments actually crowd each other till they fail on the floor and make the pathway sparkle with crushed and trodden jewels. It has been impossible to guard all these exquisite formations from covetous fingers, and too many have betn smoked hy lamps in careless hands. Yet, happily, the sul)tle forces of nature are at w^ork to mend what man has marred, and to replace by fresh creations what has gone to the mineralogist's cabinet or the amateur's Stagere. In secluded chambers, seldom exhibited to the ordinary troops tliat throng these avenues, may still be seen the trailing vines, branching antlers, stalks ol celery, and pendulous fringes like the night-blooming cereus, that were so vividly described by Bayard o -1 ■-i' a r. c ~ O := n X ^ n THE RIVER ROUTE. 91 Taylor and other early visitors. These are especially conspicuous in Charlotte's Grotto (named for the wife of Stephen, the guide), and which is near the terminus of Cleaveland's Cabinet. Here are snowy plumes float- ing from rifts and crevices. And here and everywhere in this matchless fairyland are visible clumps of lilies, daisies, blanched tulips, drooping fuchsias, spikes of tuberoses, glorious chrysanthemums, wax-leaved mag- nolias — but why exhaust the botanical catalogue? The excited fancy readily finds every gem of the green- house and parterre in this crystalline conservatory. Suddenly, hy a startling change, our path climl)s u{) from these lovely regions, ascending a miniature edi- tion of the Rocky ^lountains. From the summit of this vast pile of rocks the visitor beholds a lofty hall, which it gives the senior author of this jManual pleasure to name Call's Rotunda, in recognition of the enthusi- astic and intelligent researches made ])y the junior author, R. Ellsworth Call, Ph. D., who is so rapidly making a reputation for himself among speleologists. It is only rivaled in size ])y the Chief City, described on the ]\Iain Cave Route. The transverse diameter of Call's Rotunda is nearly double its largest component, which is the great avenue leading to the visitor's right hand. Tliis avenue leads us for about three hundred yards to a great mass of sandstone debris, where it ends. The explorer is here not far from the surface, as is ])roven l)y tliese sandstone lilocks. It is said that at times in this vicinity the ruml)lings of railroad trains overhead are audible. Returning to tlie Rotunda we look down a deep gorge calh'd the Dismal Hollow, more uncanny far than any scene amid the Kaatskills, made famous by 92 MAMMOTH CAVE. the facile pen of Irving. A black opening in the mas- sive walls admits us to Franklin Avenue, about a quar- ter of a mile long, and leading to Serena's Arbor, one of the unfrequented but most romantic grottoes of the cavern. Here the walls are studded with inconceiv- ably beautiful botryoidal concretions of lime carbonate. Massive onyx columns reach sheer to the sandstone roof. Water trickles down with perpetual music and finds its way out by crevices in the floor, through which a lam}) can be lowered and a glimpse thus be had of other scenes that are rarely explored. Returning again to Call's Rotunda and taking the left-hand branch, as we are going, we are led directly to Croghan's Hall, a room some sixty feet wide and about thirty feet high. It contains several large stalac- tites, some of them marred by vandals. The material is translucent and extremely hard; being quite equal to what is commercially known as ^Mexican onyx. It is a hard earl)onate of lime, such as was described by Pliny as alabaster, and the name of '"oriental alabas- ter" is given to it ])y Dana, to distinguish it from the common alabaster, which is a variety of gypsum, or the sulphate of lime. On our right is a ])laek and deep pit, called the Maelstrom. It has generally been described as one hundred and seventy-five feet deep ; but as measured by Mr. Ben Hains and the writer it is only eighty-eight feet in depth. If it were an open-air well of that depth the descent into it would not be regarded as such a very remarkable feat. But it is quite another thing to go down into a mysterious chasm, yawning amid the rocks, miles from the entrance of this tremendous cavern. Ilcuce it rcallv took a degree of courage, on THE RIVER ROUTE. 93 the pait of ]\Ir. "W. C. Prentice, son of the poet-editor, George D. Prentice, of LoiiisviUe, to go down tliither in quest of adventures. The story was told at the time in the Louisville papers, and was done into spirited verse by George Lansing Taylor, D. D. According to tiiese accounts the young hero was lowered by a stout rope, amid fearful and enchanting scenes, that had never been beheld since creation's morning until brought to view by the faint rays of his solitary lamp. JMidway he encountered a waterfall, spouting from the wall, into whose shower he unavoidably swung. At last lie stood on the solid rock at tlie bottom of the pit. On returning to the spot where he had hitched his rope to a stalactite, he found it disengaged and dangling beyond his reach. Ingeniously twisting the wires of his lamp into a long hook, he caught hold again, and then signaled to the guides to draw him up. This they did with such zeal (believe it who may) as to set the cable on fire by friction, so that one of them had to cravvl out on the timber across which it ran and pour water on it to extinguish the tiame ! These embellish- ments really brought the whole story into discredit. But our investigations recently made prove that Pren- tice bought the rope in Louisville for the purpose, and tluit he often narrated his adventures afterward as true. The main fact of his actually descending into tlio ^Tael- sti'oni is MJso vi'rifi(Hl by guides now living. According to the guides Matt and William, a certain telegraj)h operator, Richard Babbit ))y name, was lowered by them to the bottom of the IMaelstrom during Mr. I*f(>c1()i'"s iiiniuigriiiciit of till' c.-ive. .Mr. V. J. Stevenson, of J^oiulon, in LSO:?. in his lett(U's to his mother, now in our possession, tells the story at great 94 MAMMOTH CAVE. length of his own descent into this terrible pit, with the help of two guides, Nicholas Bransford and Frank ]\Ion- brun, and in the presence of thirty witnesses. On the 15th of ^lay, 1905, Mr. Benjamin F. Einbigler, of New York City, and ]Mr. John ^l. Nelson, guide, were lowered l)y ropes held hy Levi Woodson and Edward Hawkins, the rope-length being exactly ninety-seven feet eight inches. Tlieir account, given to me personally, varies ma- terially from the earlier descriptions, and is worthy of unquestioned acceptance. The only way to adjust the differences appears to be by supposing many changes to have taken pace in the ^laelstrom during the forty or more years that elapsed between the earlier and later descents. The most that the ordinary visitor will be apt to do, or indeed would be allowed to do, is to peer over the crumbling brink and wonder that any sane mortal should venture down such an awful abyss. Croghan's Hall is estimated by pacing to be ninety- six hundred yards from the entrance to the IMannnoth Cave, and is usually spoken of as its "end." But wdio can tell where the real termination of so vast a laby- rinth may be? At any rate we have more to see before we emerge to daylight. Accordingly, retracing our steps through the crystal- line avenues where])y we approached, we reach ]\Iary's Vineyard, descend again to the level of El Ghor, enter Boone Avenue, and visit what is jn-actically a new por- tion of the great cavern, although there are signs of its having been explored long ago by unknown visitors. A well-worn path conducts us to a chasm down whose slope we pick our way to a still lower level and find ourselves in what was described on Stephen Bishop's map, in 1815, as ]\Iiriam Avenue, so named for a Jewess, a member of the Gratz family. THE RIVER ROUTE 95 Diverging to the I'iglit, by a narrow and winding way that returns under ^Miriam Avenue, and which we named for one of our photographers Pinson's Pass, we i)res- ently emerge into a noble avenue named the jNIartel Avenue, in honor of the famous cave-hunter of France, Edward A. ]\Iartel, editor of La Nature, and for many years general secretary of La Societe de Speleogie, the only society of its kind. The point where we enter it is called, from its singular shape. Bottle Hall. Were we to go toward the left in ]\Iartel Avenue we should find the way rugged and difficult ; but would be rewarded by a glimpse of Helictite Hall, where are found those curi- ous, twisted, distorted stalactites known as "helictites. '' Several small passages ])ranch off from this long avenue, beyond whieli it finally terminates in Galloway's Dome. Tlie right-hand portion of ]\Iartel Avenue soon brings as to the bed of a brook, nearly dry at the time of our visit, but that must at times be deeply covered l)y swiftly flowing water. Ripple marks of sand alternate with fiat masses of jet-black fiint. Stranded here and there are visible knots of wood, roots of cornstalks, and other things seeming to have been recently swept in from the surface. Two domes in the vicinity are named Nelson's Domes, for that intr('])id explorer, John ^l. Nelson, formerly a guide, but now residing at Glasgow. Some more early pioneer inscril)ed the date "1848" on a rock beyond them. ]\Ir. Norman A. Parrish, a professional ''steeple-climber," came as far as this in 1004 atid w rote me a description of his adventures. It was reserved for ^Mr. B. F. Fin])igler, already mentioned in these pages, to avail himself of certain I'ootliolds over a risky ledge of limestone ])y means of which he crossed where others had turned back. In his 96 MAMMOTH CAVE honor the great overhanging dome is named "Einbigler Dome," and a larger one a hundred yards beyond was named by himself, for his sister, who visited it, the "Edna Dome." This dome differs from most others by growing broader above than it is below, seeming really to open upon some cross-cavern. On the 15th of May, 1907, Edward Hawkins scaled the wall of the pit underneath the Einbigler Dome; being followed by Einbigler and Bransford. At a later time Mr. H. M. Pinson took in the headlight of an automobile, which was still there on the 18th of June, when I visited the locality with William Bransford and Frank Barry, guides. Scaling a wall at the end of Hawkins Way, we found ourselves on the level floor of a dome sixty feet in diameter and perhaps two hundred feet high. A lofty gateway opens from it into another dome of equal dimensions, and through similar arches we visit in suc- cession five vast domes arranged as a sigmoidal group. A high window from the fifth dome looks into an ir- regular room, where a downfall of rocks l)locks further progress. In this fifth dome also a waterfall leaps from the apex to the floor, where it vanishes down a chasm. The majestic walls of all the domes rise in horizontal tiers, each tier being about ten feet in thickness and fringed by beautiful stalactites. This mighty masonry ascends in narrowing circles till the searchlight barely enables us to descry the oval white tablet forming the apex, girt by onyx pendants. Vertically the walls are richly corrugated from top to bottom. The entire series of five united domes exceeds four times the magnitude of Gorin's Dome. Ages untold were required for the chemical and mechanical action whereby this surprising THE RIVER ROUTE. 97 subterranean cathedral was carved in silence broken only by the wild, pattering waterfall or the heavier cataract. Let me anew express my personal obligation to the Mammoth Cave management for having marked their appreciation of my long-continued and enthusiastic interest in their wonderful cavern l)y naming, with the approval of the discoverer and the guides, this remark- a])le group of domes, "Ilovey's Cathedral." A glance at the map will show that Kaemper and Bishop advanced beyond what has just been described, and found two more domes, to one of which Kaemper gave the name of a German lady, calling it "Gerta's Grotto," while the other we have named "Creighton's Dome," for an early and otherwise unknown explorer, whose footprints were found here, and who carved his name on the rocks near by. There is no way out other tl:an that by which we have come in. Hence we retrace our steps through Martel and Boone Avenues, pause to refresh ourselves at Hebe's Spring, traverse El Ghor, Silliman's Avenue, cross Echo River again by boat, and the River Styx by the natural bridge. But before ascending to the surface let us make a special trip to the ^Mammoth Dome, which is as won- derful a place as any other in all this marvelous region of silence and eternal night.* In order to do this we enter Sparks' Avenue, named for INIr. C. A. Sparks, of New York City. This avenue begins with Bandit ITall, located at the foot of the (^orkscrcw. Around us tlie immense rocks are tossed in the wildest confusion. But the avenue itself is made easy going by the *The Mammoth Dome is now included in Route I. 98 MAMMOTH CAVE. removal of ol)struc'tion.s and by the excavation of trenches, where otherwise we should have to stoop. Branches from it are known as Briggs' Avenue and Sylvan Avenue, the latter u-ading to Clarissa's Dome, where are exhibited the so-called "petritied saw-logs," which are merely prostrated stalactites. "When we first visited the Mammoth Dome, in 1878, we were assured that nobody else had ]:)een there for seven years. Tom Lee was our guide, and the account of our adventures appeared in Seribner's Monthly ]\Iaga- zine for October, 1880. It is now reproduced for the reader, with modifications made by consulting notes taken at the time, as well as on subsequent visits. Barton, my artist, was fascinated with drawing the "Corkscrew" — meaning by this ambiguous term the exit from River Hall bearing that suggestive name. Hence Tom and I went alone through Sparks' Avenue till we emerged on a ledge thirty feet long and ten feet wide, where we were suddenly confronted by a realm of empty darkness. Our four lard-oil lamps were swung in vain aloft and over the edge of the terrace. They revealed neither fioor, wall, or roof of that sol- emn domain. Astonished, I acted on a momentary impulse and told Tom to go back for Barton, more lamps, and fireworks. It was not until Tom's glim- mering light had vanished that I realized what a reckless thing had been done. The solitude was dreadful. I sat for a time on the edge of the ter- race, amusing myself by throwing ignited oil papers, by means of which I discovered the fioor far below me, and also brought to view a rude ladder, with several missing rungs, and blackened by age and decay. ]\Iy sensations were overpowering, and I pru- MAMMOTH DOME. Ruins of Kariuik. THE RIVER ROUTE 99 dently withdrew to the closer embrace of the narrow avenue and whiled the time away by catching cave crickets, of which there were hundreds. Barton refused to leave until his sketch was done, and accordingly an hour or more passed by before he and Tom joined me, bringing twenty lamps, with plenty of red fire and magnesium. Carefully descending the treacherous ladder that no foot had pressed for at least seven years, we reached the floor safely. We found that it sloped down to a dismal pool, into which tumbled a cataract higher than Niagara, though of slender size. By burning chemical fires at several points at once we lighted up the huge dome, and estimated its dimensions to be about four hundred feet in length, one hundred and fifty feet in greatest width, and varying from eighty to one hundred and fifty feet or more in height. The walls were seen to be curtained by alabaster drapery, hanging in ver- tical folds that varied in size from a pipestem to a saw- log; and these folds were decorated by heavy fringes at intervals of about twenty feet. A huge gateway at the farther end of the hall opens into a room so like the ruins of Luxor and Karnak that we named it the Egyptian Temple. The floor here is paved with stalagmitic l)locks, stained by red and black oxides into a natural mosaic. Six colossal col- umns, eighty feet high l)y twenty-flve in diameter, stand in a semi-circle, flanked by pyramidal towers. The material of these shafts is gray oolite, fluted by deep furrows, with sliarp ridges between, the whole column l)eing veneered with yellow stalagmiti', rich as ,jasi)er, and covered by tracery as elal)orate as Chinese carv- ing. The capitals are jutting slabs of limestone, and 100 MAMMOTH CAVE. the bases are garnished by mushroom-sliapiMl stahiii'inites. The largest of these we named Caliban's Cushion. AVhile examining these formations I noticed an opening behind the third column in the row, and clambering down a steep descent reached gloomy cata- combs underneath the temple which have since then been more fully explored, but without tinding much of interest. On our way back to the terrace we noticed overhead a l)lack opening which Tom assured me was identical with the Crevice Pit in Little Bat Avenue. He also sliowed me the spot where a rusty lamp was found on the floor of the Egyptian Temple, and that I afterward ol)tained as a treasure for my cave cal)inet. The story of the Crevice Pit is Avell worth telling, as originally told by R. M. Bird, M. D., in 18:30, and confirmed ))y later authorities. It seems that I\Ir. Gatewood convinced the owners of the cave, whose agent he was, that the richest deposit of nitrous earth would doubtless be found under the Crevice Pit. To test this ^Ir. Wilkins took a rope forty-five feet long and fastened a lamp to it, which he then lowered into the pit. The rope accidentally caught fire, and the result was the loss of the lamp. That was a serious loss in those days, for it could not be replaced short of a trip to Lexington. Accordingly a miner climbed down to a shelf in the ugly black hole and tried to regain his lamp l)y feeling around for it w-ith his stafiP. But suddenly the stick slipped from his hand and went rattling down the abyss. Wilkins then offered a rew^ard of two dollars for the recovery of the lamp. A sprightly young negro, named Little Dave, volunteered to be let down, as a sort of animated plummet, to sound the depth of the pit. The story he told on being drawn up THE RIVER ROUTE. 101 again was so wonderful that nobody believed him. He told of a spacious, splendid dome, bigger than the Rotunda, with tall columns and other magnificent features, now seen by every visitor to the IMammoth Dome. But Little Dave's reward, besides the promised two dollars, was the reputation of ])eing either crazy or the champion liar of Kentucky. Several futile attempts have been made to ascer- tain the true depth of the Crevice Pit. Edmund C. Lee, in 1885, tied a stone to a string and "struck bot- tom at two hundred and eighty feet"; and as Lee was a civil engineer his statement was for years quoted without dispute. In the summer of 189G, Hovey and Call ascertained its true depth. It was not an easy task, owing to the dangerous nature of the opening. First we lowered a light plummet, which lodged after going down about thirty feet. But the weight of the cord kept pulling itself out of hand till one hundred and forty feet had gone down, when the trick was sus- pected. Probably Mr. Lee was deceived in this way, as many another cave explorer has been. Thus Eldon Hole, in Derbyshire Peak, in England, was measured as being seven hundred and fifty feet deep, when its real depth was only one hundred and eighty-six feet. Then attaching a lighted Iniiip to a cord, Doctor all lowered it, while I stood on the opposite edge and watched it go down, calling out whenever it lodged, so that it might be pulled off and started down again. Leaving the lamj) there, to be located afterward l)y going around through Sparks' Avenue to the ^Mam- moth Dome, we next lowered a heavy stone by a cord, making allowance for stretching. The cord was then measured by a steel tape. The average result of our 102 MAMMOTH CAVE. several measurements fixed the distance from the brink of the Crevice Pit to the foot of the ladder in the ]\lam- moth Dome as being eighty-eight feet. That point, however, is not the bottom of the dome. Doctor Call afterward measured the remaining distance, and found it to be thirty-one feet, which must be added to the previ- ous figure, making the distance one hundred and nine- teen feet. But we must not forget to add the space excavated by the top of the dome aljove the mouth of the Crevice Pit, and which is certainly as much as thirty feet. Putting all this together, we are safe in asserting that the distance from the highest to the low- est point in the ]\lammoth Dome exceeds one hundred and fifty feet. This was afterward confirmed by my method of balloon measurement. Now our steps are turned toward the mouth of the cave. Back we go, through Sparks' Avenue to Bandit Hall. Thence we climb up and up through the Cork- screw till fairly bewildered with its windings. It is a place to test our latent powers of orientation — that marvelous gift that guides the homing pigeons in their vast aerial flights. Professor Brewer and the writer agreed while amid these mazes, and also in other parts of the great cavern, that whenever either said to the other, "Point east," the command should be instantly obeyed. A moment's pause for reflection would spoil it all. But instantaneous ol)edience was, in frequent instances, rewarded hy the pointing of the finger toward the sunrise. Sometimes we would vary the command l)y bidding each other to point toward the north, and with equally satisfactory results, provided w'e could trust instinct instead of reason. THE RIVER ROUTE. 103 Cave animals, hundreds of them, find their way about without guide, map, lamplight, and even without eyes. Dogs lost in the cave invariably find their way out. The writer gave a story of canine adventure in St. Nicholas ^lagazine for April, 1882, the main facts of which were as follows : Jack, the veteran house-dog, was a cautious brute, who went with us to the Iron Gate, peered between the bars, and then trotted reso- lutely back to the hotel. Brigham, his frisky comrade, pushed ahead and explored on his own account. One day he ran off after a cave rat, and we had to leave, him to his fate. After two days he and Jack were found on opposite sides of the Iron Gate, exchanging experiences. "We tracked the path taken by the run- away and found that he had crossed streams, floundered tiirough mud-holes, climbed cliffs, and apparently gone up through the Corkscrew to the Iron Gate, where we were glad to greet him as a hero. He may have been aided by scenting our trail, but we gave him credit for a remarkable gift of "orientation." lias the earth lungs? And does it breathe? It cer- tainly seems so to us as we finally emerge from the mouth of the cavern. "Antros, " the Greek name for cave, simply means "a l)reatliing place," as if througii eaves, as nostrils, the eartli inlwiled ;ind exlialed the vital air. Down in the dark recesses where we have been it was almost possible to hear the beating of Nature's heart. Tlie long avenut'S are the superb arteries through which flows hei- life, llow easy our own respiration has been amid the pure, exhilarating air that comes oxygenated from the central reservoirs of the globe. As we climl) upward to the garish light of day we feel the loss of those strong and invigor- 104 MAMMOTH CAVE. ating atmospheric influences. We almost dread the humidity, the heavy odors, the suffocating exhalations of the weeds, trees, grasses, and flowers. Every visitor is surprised at what he experiences, jDarticularly on emerging from the River Route, where for nine hours he has been stimulated by the oxygenated air. Linger- ing awhile near the entrance to get used to the yellow sunlight, or the silvery light of the moon, we also grow accustomed to tlie oppressive atmosphere that sweeps through the Kentucky woods, and which would ordi- narily be descrilied as the purest country air. Finally, breaking away from the fascination of the wide and forever open mouth of the great cavern, that seems to be tacitly inviting us to renew our interior explorations, we cross the rocky platform, the rural road, the vineclad valley, and climb the forest path- way to the crest of the bluff. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CAVERN. ITS FAUNA AND FLORA ^» QUITE thirty years passed away after the discovery of ^iaiuinoth Cave l)efore the adventurous spirit of Stephen Bishop devised a rude way to cross the Bottondess Pit. Soon after the rivers were discovered, which followed immediately after this daring adventure, the earliest specimens of crayfish and blind-fish were also found. Previous to this time occasional mention was made of the "cave crickets" and the "cave rats," which the miners and early visitors imagined to be the common Norway or domestic rat. That was all. It is an interesting fact that, with the exception of the blind-fish, the earliest descriptions of animals from the Mammoth Cave were by Europeans. All the American visitors appear to have had little regard for anything except the scenic features of the cavern. But in 1844 there were described two blind beetles, one blind spider, and the blind crayfish, all in a German scientific publication, and by Doctor T. Tellkampf. Two years previously, 1842, Doctor DeKay had described in the Natural History of New York tlie blind-fish under tlie name of Aiublyopsis spelceus, making the ^Mammoth Cave form, which was then alone known, the type of the genus. Doctor Jeffries Wyman published a minute description of the Anihhjopsis .^pchnis, with interesting anatomical details, in 1843. (See Vol. xi.v, American Journal of Science and Art, page 04.) But it yet remained for Doctor Tellkaini)f to still further descril)e and illustrate this species, his woi-k ai)i)earing in the New York Journal of Medicine, July, 1845, with plates (105) 106 MAMMOTH CAVE. sliowing the entire fish and its anatomy, constituting the first known illustrations of this form. It was, however, not until 1871 that very much became known about the various forms of life found in this cave. In the previous year Doctor A. S. Packard and Professor F. W. Putnam had made extensive col- lections and described them, their work appearing in the American Naturalist in 1871, with excellent descrip- tions and fine illustrations. Later, two days' active collecting was done in the cavern by ]\Ir. H. G. Hubbard, who published his results in the American Entomologist, Vol. iir, in 1880. Numerous shorter papers have appeared, in all about one hundred, in various languages, in scientific journals and the pro- ceedings of learned societies, and these all add a little to our knowledge of the life forms in the cavern. The most extensive treatise on the animals of this cave is to be found in the IMemoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, and is a memoir on Cave Animals of North America, by Doctor A. S. Packard, junior, pub- lished in 1889. In this work will be found all accessible information relating to the cavern fauna up to the time of its pu])lication ; since then, however, extensive col- lections made by the writer have revealed a number of new forms which have been elsewhere descril^ed and figured.* The facts connected with these interesting animals are so scattered that it has ])een deemed of considera- ble interesc to many students to indicate the nature of the forms and the localities where they are likely to be *See the American Naturalist, Vol. xxxi, pp. 357-392, pis. x, xi, May, 1897; "Some Notes on the Fauna and Flora of Mammoth Cave," by R. Ellsworth Call; also " Notes on the Flora of Mammoth Cave," by R. Ellsworth Call Journal Cincinnati Society Natural History, 1897, Vol. xix, pp. 79, 80. ^^^^^^m^m^ SCOTERPEvS COPEI (Packard). Named by Packard for Dr. E. D. Cope, the eminent naturalist. A. Half the natural size. B. Enlarged view of head. Eyeless. Showing the tactile, hairs on the two anterior segments. PHALANGES ARMATA (Tellkampf). A typical, blind, and very ancient cave spider, of the group belonging to the Harvestman, or "granddaddy longlegs." The single eye is abortal. Pigment only remains. The microscope shows that the nerve extending from it to the central ganglia has disappeared. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CAVERN. 107 seen by the visitor. In doing so there has been no attempt at systematic chissifieatiou beyond indicating the greater zoological groups to which tlie forms belong. If the visitor desires to collect, permission being secured from the management beforehand, it will 1)0 well to remember that the drier portions of the cave will afford him little or nothing save lost time ; ])ut in the damper portions of his several trips he may hope to have abundant success. Thus, to instance a few local- ities, he will prol)a])ly find specimens of three kinds ot: flies in and around the decaying specimens of Coprinus, which he will find at various places along the River Route. With them, also, will be found occasional specimens of the small brown beetle, Adclops. In the Way to Pits and Domes, near Richardson's Spring, he will find historic collecting ground, for this is one of Packard's richest localities. Under the damp flat stones he will here take Tellkampf's small white spider, and that interesting little thysanurid, Campodea cookei, described from this place liy Packard. Scurrying over the muddy walk or hiding under the flat stones go a num])er of ])rown beetles, to which has been given the name of A)wphthahuu.9. A little farther on and under the old timbers which are here to be seen will be secured white myriapods, belonging to Scotcrpcs. If the characteristics of the locality ])e carefully noted, the visitor may ])e sure that any similar locality will afford him other specimens of the same or other kinds. At the end of Gratz Avenue and in Flint Dome, should the visitor go to that portion of the cavern, in the waters of Shaler's Brook and in the ])ools in the midst of the dome, he will liud myriads of the small 108 MAMMOTH CAVE. wl)it(' crustacean, Ccccidotea slyijia; occasional speci- mens may also be taken in Richardson's Spring. The larger crustacean, Gamharus pellucidus, can be had only in the Echo and connected rivers, though the writer collected two specimens in Flint Dome, until then not known to have any connection with the rivers themselves. Of course Echo River will be, with its pools, the only place where may be found the blind- fish. And neither of these last named forms will prove to be abundant. They are to be collected with great difficulty, even though they may commonly l)e seen by the visitor as he wends his way along the rivers, on both "ides thereof. Occasional specimens are stranded and left in pools which become quite dry on the reces- sion of the waters after a rise. Roaring River, never visited by the tourist, which is a succession of muddy pools for a long distance, is a famous place to collect them, l)ut for these the visitor must arrange with the management. It is not proposed in this place to review the entire known fauna of the cave nor to list, with descriptions, all of its plants. The casual visitor will have little use for either, because, unless he is a naturalist, and some- what acquainted with the hal)its of the animals and plants, he will search long in vain ; when he does find their favorite haunts, with few exceptions he will dis- cover that they are rare. The following list is complete up to the present time, and contains all the species which are certainly known in the cave: THE "BLIND BEETLE." Anophthalmus menetresii (Motsch). A. Magnified six times, showing tactile hairs on thorax, legs and antennae. Found in the Labyrinth, Washington Hall, etc. B. The antenna of Anophthalmus magnified to show more plainly the peculiar development of compensatory sensitive tactile hairs. BLIND BEETLE. Anophthalmus. Their life history unknown, except that their eggs are laid in the sand in the avenue from Lovers' Leap to Lee's Cisterns, near the pool just beyond Gatewood's Dining Table. A SCAVENGER BEETLE. Called " Blind," hut it has eyes, and bright ones. Found abundantly on and around chicken bones, etc., in Wash- ington Hall and elsewhere. Drawn fourteen times the size of the original. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CAVERN, 109 INFUSORIA. Chilomonas emarginata Ehrenberg. Eiver Styx. Chilodon cucullulus Ehreiiberg. Eiver Styx. Monas kolpoda (?). Serena's Bower. Monas socialis (?). Serena's Bower. VERMES. Dendrocselum percaecum Packard. Shaler's Brook; Eich- ardson's Spring. Lumbricus sp. Banks of Echo Eiver. CRUSTACEA. Canthocamptus cavernarum Packard. "Wandering Willie's Spring. Ca^cidotea stygia Packard. Flint Dome; Shaler's Brook. Crangonyx vitreus Cope. Flint Dome; Eichardson's Sjjring. Crangonyx sp. Shaler's Brook. Cambarus pellucidus Tellkampf. Echo Eiver; Flint Dome. ARACHNIDA. La?laps cavernieola Packard. Labyrinth. Gamasus troglodytes Packard. Locality unknown. Belba bulbipedatus Packard. Labyrinth. Chthonius packardii Hagen. Mammoth Dome; Labyrinth. Phalangodes armata Tellkampf. Bottomless Pit; Gorin's Dome; Labyrinth; Mary's Vineyard; Ilovey's Eamble. Anthrobia mammouthia Tellkampf. Labyrinth; Bottom- less Pit. Ca'lotes juvenilis Keyserling. Locality unknown. Liocranoides unicolor Keyserling. Labyrinth. Linopodes mammouthia Banks. Labyrinth. Ehagidia cavicola Banks. Labyrinth. Willibaldia ineerta Emerton. Labyrinth. Phanetta subterranea Emerton. Labyrinth. IXSECTA. Dorypteryx (?) hageni Banks. Darnall's Way. Smynthurus mammouthia Banks. Darnall 's Way, Entomobrya cavicola Banks. Darnall's Way. Campodea cookei Packard. All moist stations under stones, especially in Eichardson's Sjiring region; Hovey's Eamble. 110 MAMMOTH CA\^. Machilis caveruicola Tellkampf. Labyrintli. Hadena'cus subterraneus Scudder. Everywhere, nearly. Elipsoc'us sp. Adelops hirtus Tellkampf, Numerous stations; especially abundant in Washington Ilall. Auophthalnnis tellkampfii Erichson. All moist stations. Anophthalmus menetresii ]\Iotseh. Labyrinth; Washing- ton Ilall. Anophthalmus iuterstitialis Hubbard. Washington Ilall. Anophthalmus striatus Motsch. Labyrinth. Anophthalmus audax Horn. Washington Hall. Sciara inconstans Fitch. Mammoth Dome. Limosina stygia Coquillett. Mammoth Dome. Phora rufix^es Meig. Labyrinth; Gorin's Dome; Hovey's Eanible. Scoterpes copei Packard. Labyrinth; Bottomless Pit; Mary's Vineyard; Kiver Hall. VERTEBRATA. Neotoma magister Baird. Everywhere; especially abun- dant in Washington Hall near lunching station. Peromyscus leucopus Kafinesque. Eotunda. Vespertilio lucifugus LeConte. Eotunda; Little Bat Ave- nue; Olive's Bower. Vesperugo caroliueusis Geoff. St. Hil. Audubon 's Avenue. Spelerpes lougieaudus Green. Mouth of Cave; Flint Dome. Amblyopsis spela^us DeKay. Echo Eiver; Soaring Eiver. Tyjihlichthys subterraneus Girard. Echo Eiver. Chologaster agassizii Putnam. Echo Eiver. MOLLUSCA. Carychium stygium Call. Mammoth Dome. Til is is not au extensive list of animals for so large a cavern, but it is to be remembered that collection is very difficult under the conditions which prevail in the cave. The list, such as it is, results from the occasional work of numerous collectors ; an exhaustive and complete study of the fauna has yet to be instituted. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CAVERN. Ill PLANTyE, Very much loss is known of the plants of the cave than of its animals. Only the most cursory collections have yet l)een made, though the writer has sought to make complete the collections of microscopic forms. Many of those collected were indeterminate, and others are yet undescribed. This will, in a measure, account for the meagre list. It should be remarked in passing that with but two or three exceptions the forms found are all such as occur on the surface of the ground, and all are fungi or related groups. The list now following contains all certainly known at this time : Coprinus micaeeus Bull. River Hall ouly. Groups of this toad-stool are sometimes fouud along Eiver Hall, uear the boat landing, and at the Cascades, near the Elver Styx. Fomes applanatus Pers. Labyrinth. Ehizomorpha molinaris. Abundant on old timbers iu Mammoth Dome. Probably, like its foreign relatives, this form will be found to be phos[ihoroseent. Microascus longirostis Zukal. Washington Hall. Zasmidium cellare Ft. Corkscrew, at top, on old barrel head. Mucor mucedo Linn. Labyrinth; Mary's Vineyard; Eiver Hall. Gj-mnoascus setosus Eidam. Washington Hall. Si)orotrichum densum Link. On dead crickets. Si)orotrichum flavissimum Link. Washington Hall. Laboulbcnia subtcrranea. On Anophthalmus. Cojmansia sp. Washington Hall. Papulospora sji. Washington Hall. Bouderia s]). Washington Hall. The great numlx'r of forms from Washington Hail is to be explained by the fact that in that locality may be found a great mass of refuse from dining parties; 112 MAMMOTH CAVE. on the rejectamenta of lunches many varieties of minute fungi occur, though the spores are quite likely intro- duced by visitors and in or with the food. A single very small but beautiful Peziza occurs on the timbers in Mammoth Dome, but is certainly introduced from without. The same fact is true of amorphous forms of Fomcs applanatus taken from bridge timbers in the Labyrinth. BLIND ANIMALS: THEIR ENVIRONMENT AND DEVOLUTION. SINCE Doctor Call prepared his admirable chapter on Cavern Fauna and Flora a few early accounts have come to light, and some recent additions have been made to the literature on the subject, especially con- cerning its bearing on the theory of evolution. The very first account ever published about the eyeless fish was by Rev. Robert Davidson, D. D., Presi- dent of Transylvania University, in a small volume from the press of A. T. Skillman, Lexington, Kentucky, 1840, entitled, "An Excursion to the Mammoth Cave, and the Barrens of Kentucky." Stephen Bishop had just crossed the Bottomless Pit and discovered what was then styled simply "The River," in whose sullen waters were found very remarkable "white fish without eyes, but with their other senses so acute that the slightest touch of the water overhead was sufficient to alarm them, and make them dart off like lightning." In 1842 W. T. Craige gave a single specimen of the blind fish to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences; and in that same year DeKay described it in his volume on Re])tiles and Fishes (p. 187) in the Natural History of New York. He named it the Amhhjopsis spchius, meaning weak- eyed cave dweller. This was soon followed by articles by Wyman, Thompson, and Tellkampf. TuphVwldliys subterranams was first described by Girard in LSf)!); the Chologaster agassizii was described and named l)y Put- nam; and the TroglicMhys rose((i was thus named by Eigenmann. These four genera: Amblyopsis, Typhlich- tkys, Chologaster, and TrogUchthys, are grouped as a family, under the name of Amhlyopsidoe, and belong to (113) 114 MAMMOTH CAVE. tlie order of Ha pi am I. (E. D. Cope, Proceedings of A. A. A. S., Indianapolis, 1872, pp. 328, 333.) These, and certain other true subterranean fauna, may be regarded as mainly of Pleistocene origin ; while a few are supposed to be remnants of Tertiary, or pos- sibly of Cretaceous life. Their strongly marked divergence from similar creatures found in open waters convinced the elder Agassiz that they were "specially created for the limits within which they dwell." This question will receive further attention later on. Insignificant as cave animals may seem to the care- less eye, these lowly minnows, crawfish, worms, flies, fleas, spiders, crickets, and beeth^s have been microscopically examined, dissected to their minutest anatomy, and laborious treatises written about them, bristling with words l)ig enough to de-^cribc whales, mastodons, and manuuoths. Indeed tluy have a voluminous bibliogra- phy, including contri))utions by Agassiz, Banta, Blatch- ley, Chilton, Cole, Cope, Collet, Cox, Dubois, Eigenmann, Forbes, Garman, Girard, Gunther, Ilamann, Hay, Holmes, Hul)l^ard, Jordan, Lankester, Nagel, Packard, Parker, Payne, Putnam, Richardson, Semper, Vire, Yerkes, and others, besides the authors of this Manual. The average size of a full-grown Aniblyopsis spcla'us, the most famous of the blind-fish, is only about three and a half inches. Rarely it is found longer, and the ]\Iammotli Cave guides tell us of specimens measuring eight inches. The writer never saw one that exceeded five inches in length. He is inclined to think that stray visitors from the surface waters have been sometimes mistaken for the true Amhhjopsis. The blind-fish are found in pools, or the rills between the pools, and often BLIND ANIMALS, 115 in deep wells in the vicinity of caves. They are dignified denizens of the darkness, often lying quietly on the muddy bottom of the waters, floating lazily on the surface, or slowly swimming along by the aid of their pectoral fins, though bringing the tail into action when disturbed, and darting rapidly away. What do cave creatures live upon? The question of food supply is always of prime importance. An animal with plenty to eat is apt to grow and unfold its organic life, whereas one half-starved will be likely to have its growth retarded, and certain features and functions changed or diseontinued. Clearly strict vegetarians must be scarce in caverns because of the general paucity of vegeta])le life. Still, where there is some such matter, it is utilized. Cave crickets, centipedes, and myriapods, like the Pscndo- treniia and hairy Scotcrpcs, are known to live on the debris of leaves and wood, swept in annually ])y the overflowing streams. The cave carnivora are scavengers, subsisting on dead bats, rats, and refuse dragged in ])y beasts or left by human visitors. The cave crawfish (the Canibarus pellucidus) feeds on acpiatic Crustacea which it deftly extracts with its pincerlike claws from under flat stones. The blind-fish catches the young crawfish when it can, and eats its eggs, preying also on the Crongonijx and other Crustacea, and, we regret to say, on minnows of its own kind. We have known one instance where a l)lin(I-fish caught and swallowed a fish that had eyes and ouglit to have known enough to escape. And, such is tiie coni'ormity to conditions where plenty is the exception and sc;ii-city llie rule, Ili;it I have kept blind-fish for a wliole year in an a(|nai'inm wliere there was no other food than the animaleuUe and eon- 116 MAMMOTH CAVE. tci'voi growing in the water. Experiments of naturalists lead to the conjecture that the blind-hsh are aided in search for prey by certain terminal buds on the snout, the head, and on the body. All observers agree that, when in captivity, the blind- fish tlirive best in the dark. They are certainly sensitive to the light, though sightless. When placed in a trough partly covered and partly exposed to the light, they instinctively prefer the darkened portion of the trough. Eigenmann made a series of interesting experiments, not only in aquaria with ])lackened tunnels and parti- tions, but also in those that were illumined by the various colors of the spectrum, in order to see what reac- tion might follow. His conclusion was that the lilind- fish strongly prefer red and shun blue. Sloan, Packard, Blatchley, and others agree with our own observations as to the torpidity of the organs of hearing in blind-fish, although it is said that "the auditory sjDots" exist in them just as in fish in open streams. Eigenmann says that ''lilind-fishes detect vibrations with a frequency of one hundred per second, by means of sense organs in the skin." Pie adds very curious remarks as to the amatory contests in which the rival males vigorously punch and thrust each other while they quarrel for their mates. A general l)ut erroneous notion prevails that the Amhhjopsis is viviparous. An instance is often quoted in which an adult fish was left alone in an aquarium and the next day was found with eight little ones. The ex- phmation is that the young remain for about a month in the maternal gill pouch after lieing hatched from the egg, where they had previously been for about twenty- eight days. .,»*v ■ • ) 'i&^ -m HEAD 01^ TYPHLICHTHYS SUBTERRANET.^ (Mammoth Cave.) H iliiia^u^MfcW^*** riT»Tiw HEAD OF TYPHLICHTHYS OSBORNI. (From Horse Cave, near Mammoth Cave.) I'.ioto liy KiKCnmanii. HADENCKCUS SUBTERRANEUS (Scudder). A cave cricket — not grasshopper, but of the katydid family of Orthoptera. The pigmental eyes are sightless. The thorax is still somewhat brown, showing that the bleached condition ob- servable in most cave animals has not yet been hereditarily established. Observe the extraordinary antennit, as an instance of compensation. BLIND ANIMALS, 117 As early as 1856 the writer visited certain romantic caves along the valley of the White River, near ^iitchell, Indiana, where he saw blind-fish and blind crawfish, which he also ol)served in other Indiana caves. ^lore recently the ]\Iitcliell caves have come into notice through the researches of Professor Carl H. Eigenmann, of the Indiana State University. Doctor Eigenmann began to give attention to subterranean fauna in 1886, and ten years later visited the Twin Caves and Dalton's Spring, at Mitchell, where he found abundant material for his biological laboratory. In 1893 the State Legislature put aljout one hundred and eighty-two acres of the land around these eaves in the keeping of the trustees of the University, at his suggestion and to further his researches and experiments. Thus encouraged, and also aided by grants from scientific societies, most valua])le materials have been obtained, as well as from various other caves in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and elsewhere. The re- sults were made public ])y a numl)er of papers read before scientific societies, and in bulletins from the University. In lyuU these were collated, with much new matter, and published, as a quarto monograph, l)y the Carnegie Insti- tution of Washington, under the title, "Cave Vertebrates of America — a Study of Degenerative Evolution; by Carl II. Eigenmann, Professor of Zoology, Indiana Uni- versity." This exhaustive work comprises two hundred and forty-one pages, with thirty-one full plates and seventy-two text-figures. It th'als with cavern fauna as found all over the continent, from California to Cuba; but the main part of the work concerns blind vertebrates and their eyes, descri])ing twelve vai-ie- ties, eight of them belonging to the Amhhjopsida'. Only seven hundred copies were printed, and lience the volume is not generally accessible. 118 MAMMOTH CAVE. It is no new idea that subterranean life is highly instructive concerning the theory of evolution, the writer himself having repeatedly spoken on the subject before scientific societies. Evidently, if degeneration or devolu- tion follows as the result of the seclusion of certaia kinds of plants and animals in dark caverns, it must bo by the withdrawal of forces and causes that, under favor- able environment, would work for evolution. For ex- ample, if we discover the partial or total absence of certain muscles, nerves, or organs, as the result of degeneration carried on for many generations, the in- ference is fair that these atrophied parts would be duly evolved again were the process reversed and the cave animals to live for a sufficiently long period under the same conditions as their open-air congeners, in the sun- light and with abundant food. Every one has noticed how potatoes and turnips put forth colorless shoots when growing down cellar. It is even possible to raise a crop under such conditions; but the tubers are small and waxy, showing depaupera- tion. Imagine the process to go on for years or centuries, and the result might be a plant hardly to be recognized by comparison with the vegetables growing in the garden. Just as aquatic plants in cave waters are bleached, so with the true cavern fauna. The crawfish and crusta- ceans are white, or at best a pale brown. So with the blind-fish, the myriapods, the spiders, etc. Exceptions excite suspicion. Cave flies, for instance, which are a dull black, are able to fly in and out with occasional access to the open air. Plainly natural selection, or self-protection by choice of coloration, can not explain the cave-lileaching for ani- mals dwelling in perix'tual and utter darkness. The bleaching seems simi)ly due to the atrophy of those cells i^^"" "nevv RIVER, ^/K :^^ ir^ poov3 / Chme.'.e Wall. 2 Entrance to New Discovery. 3 Entrance to Wild Conse Chase and River Region. 4 Uncle Tom\ Pool 5 Lizard Spring 6 Turn Pits 7 Rum- of Carthage 12 13|4 15 17 8 Rock: Island 9 Sandstone Tumhiedim 10 Ruins oj Martiniqu 11 Register Acenue 12 Starry Heaoens and Milky i^oy. 13 Bearskin Rohe. 1 4 Phosphate Mountain. 15 Hull oJ the Great Western. I 6 Catacombs. 17 Pulpit Rock- IH Cascade Pit 19 Pearly Pool. 20 Kangaroo Bend. COLOSSAL CAVERN COLOSSAL DOME 18 19 20' °00L' 1^ HORACE c HOVEY DM SURVET B Y E DGAR VAUCH AMD W L M ARSHALL SCALE OF FEET 50 100 50 2W 250 30D BLIXD ANIMALS. 119 in which, under the stimulus of light, pigmental matter is secreted. The blind-fish furnish a typical example of panmixia (a term literally meaning "all mixed up"). We can imagine the first colony, captured by some catastroi)he in underground waters, to have had their eyes simply weakened by disuse. In following generations the eyes would be shrunken and useless. This might begin by individual degeneration (ontogenetic panmixia) ; and then racial degeneration (or phjdogenetic panmixia) would follow. Fish with atrophied eyes would transmit blindness to broods of young fisli till a ])lind fauna was established. Let us note with almost pathetic interest the com- pensations given to the cave animals by Him who marks the sparrow's fall. This feature of evolutionary work has hardly had the attention it deserves. In cave insects, spiders, and Crustacea the form is elongated till in some cases it is truly grotesque. ]\[any a time I have held a burning candle so near a cave cricket as to stop for fear of setting it afire; and the experiment was regarded by it with indifference. But tlie least finger- touch of one of its extremely elongated and sensitive feelers, delicate as a spiderwel), would give the alarm, causing it to run away witli ludicrous celerity. r'nv(> beetles find their comiicnsation in long stiff bristh'-iike hairs, so that they move a])out with remarkal)le facility. We have kept in the same tank tlie common crawfish (Camharus Bartonii) and tlic l)Iiii(l crawfish {Camhani'i pcJlucidus) and observed their habits of feeding. A moi'sel tlirown to the first would Ix^ seized and disposed of at once. But if dropped near the blind creature it would dart back and wave its long feelers, only approach- 120 MAMMOTH CAVE. ing the morsel by a series of cautious strategic move- ments. Do not forget this beneficent law of compensa- tion. Let us not lay too heavy a load on favorite theories, which certainly do account for many, but not for all things. Evolution is limited by environment and its process may even be reversed and become devohition. Let us not hurry. We are not like a sworn jury that nuist find a verdict and l)e discharged. There is plenty of time. "Wait and investigate. Pigeon-hole every faci, and wait. The best definition of evolution describes it as a con- tinual differentiation of the complex from the simple. First, simple forms; then the complex. But in cave fauna we find the process reversed; the complex forms are reverting to those that are more simple. Our limits forbid our either following further such fascinating problems, or taxing the reader's patience by moralizing. Yet we may affirm anew our cherished faith that all forms of life exist and go on under a Divine plan, whether by progression or retardation, by deprivation or compensation, ])y evolution or devolution, environed by darkness or light, amid profound caverns or amid the brave sunshine. ]\Iany things beyond our immediate comprehension are worthy of patient and prolonged in- vestigation. We may close this chapter by quoting the oft-(iuoted words of the former poet-laureate of Eng- land : "F]ower in the crannied Avail, I jiluek you out of the crannies, Hold you here, root and all in my hand, Little flower: but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is." Vaughan's Dome. Grand Crossing. THE COLOSSAL CAVERN By HORACE CARTER HOVEV IX the vicinity of ^Mammoth Cave are numerous smaller caves and grottoes, each with its peculiarities and attractions. One of these has the odd name of the Bed-quilt Cave, due it is said to the fact that an Indian quilt was once found there. No particular in- terest was taken in it until recently. No one knew that it led to one of the most magnificent caverns in America till after the latter had been otherwise discovered. The late ]\Ir. William Garvin, a veteran soldier and guide through the mazes of the Mammoth Cave, told the writer that, on the loth of July, 1895, he observed a hole in a hillside adjoining his own farm. Entering it he made his way into a large dome, of which the hole vvas the apex. Bringing ladders, he and his neighbors climbed down for sixty-six feet to the floor of the dome, whence they pursued a winding way amid the rugged rocks in a northerly direction for some twelve hundred feet, passing numerous objects of interest. Finally they were ))rought abrui)tly against a vertical wall, whose floor was visible thirty-six feet below where they stood. By means of their ladders they eliml)ed down to the bot- tom, and noted the five projecting points that suggested to the writer the name of the Quinque Dome. An article over my signature appeared in the Scien- tific American August 29, 1896, ascri])ing the iii-st ex- ploration to a young man named Pike Chapman. The discovery has also been claimed for Robert Woodson, who is said to have found it while searching for a spring. Possibly there were several simultaneous discoveries; but we give full credit to the statement made to us per- 122 THE COLOSSAL CAVERN. sonally by ]\Ir. William Garvin. All the original en- trances have been wisely closed up by the present owners, partly to prevent spoliation and partly because the natural openings were hard to reach and for other reasons inconvenient. In January, 1896, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company purchased what is well named '"Tlie Colossal Cavern" from the late Dr. L. W. Ilazen, on whose farm the first known entrance was located, and for a time they employed him as their agent. As further explorations were pushed in various directions, the Company liought all the land under which its course was found to run, and expended large sums in widening narrow passages, smootliing rough places, building stairways where these were desirable, and did many other things for the com- fort of visitors. On their special invitation the writer visited the Colossal Cavern in 1903, and made a map of it from the notes of a survey by Edgar Vaughan and W. L. Marshall, which has been extensively used in the rail- road advertising brochures, and appears also along with a descriptive article by me in the Scientific American Supplement, November 21, 1903, parts of which have been published by others without giving the author due credit. (See also my article in Volume YI of the eleventh edition of the EncyelopaKlia Britannica.) On the occasion of my visit the first use was made here of individual acetylene lamps, by whose aid the writer did some fairly good work in subterranean pho- tography, the results lieing ])u])lislied at the time. I was accompanied by the noted arelueologist, ^Ir. Gerard Fowke, and our guides were ^Messrs. J. ^I. and ^Morris Hunt, to whose kind attentions we were much indebted. So accurate was the instrumental survey already re- Samson's Pillar. S-^^ ^- / ^-3 . THE COLOSSAL CAVERN. 123 ferred to above, that hy its means the Company found themselves able to force a new entrance at a locality where it was most desired by themselves ; and this is now the only mode of access to the cavern. It is at the foot of a steep hill, facing the west, and located a mile and a half from the entrance to the Mammoth Cave. The road thither winds along the margin of Eden Valley, into which it presently descends. Both this and the nearby Doyle Valley are true "sink holes" of great magnitude, with groves, farms, and habitations, but without running water, though gathering volumes of water during rainfalls, to empty them through pits into caverns underneath. Where these orifices have been closed up there are now ponds, with reeds and rushes. The entrance to Colossal Cavern, being wholly arti- ficial, has no special beauty, but is simply a convenient door and stairway, in passing through which we notice the outward draft of air that extinguishes our lamps, to l)e relighted when fairly underground. The rock from which the cave is excavated is limestone of homogenous texture. ^lidway down the stairs we step aside to inspect what is termed the Chinese Wall, which forms the rim of a pool in a room al)out one huudred feet in diameter. Smnll stalactites cover the ceiling, and there are numerous stalagmites, one of the largest of them being named the Pagoda, from its fancied re- semblance to an Eastern temple n\' tli;it deseriptiou. Some two liundi-ed feel within. ;i path diverges to the so-called "New l)is('()V rein.-ii-knble echoes that add to the charm of this extraordinaiy dome. The Pearly Pool route is entered by a tunnel sixty feet long. We i)ause a moiDt'ut on Ihe verge of a pit 130 THE COLOSSAL CAVERN. eighty-six feet deep, around which are some curiously formed stalagmites resembling various birds and beasts. Ages ago a big stalactite fell with its tip under the drip- pings of a cascade, which left on it a rich nacrous in- crustation. The basin, three or four feet wide, that catches these waters, is the Pearly Pool, and glistens witli lumdreds of cave pearls. Some nameless, graceless scamp has struck his hammer into the middle of it, thus making an outlet for the water and terminating the pearl-making l)usiness, at least for a time. The Kangaroo Bend opens into the Snowy Valley, some six hundred feet long, where fine gypsum forma- tions abound. This valley ends in a tumble-down where copious chalybeate springs fiow over iron-stained stalag- mites. The water is palatable, and it is claimed that it possesses valuable medicinal properties. It only remains to add a few words about what will perhaps be styled the "New Discovery" until some more appropriate title shall have been found. It begins near the entrance to the cave, and has been surveyed for two thousand linear feet. So much of it has to be traversed in a stooping position, or on one's hands and knees, that its length seems at least twice that distance. Patience finds its reward as we are introduced to a region utterly unlike anything else in the vicinity, though similar places are to be seen in certain caves in Indiana. The bed-rock is a fine-grained magnesian limestone, resembling that used for lithographic purposes. Indeed the material has been satisfactorily tested for this use since our visit. For many hundred feet the path has been artificially cut through this l)eautiful rock. On every hand we behold on walls and roof the most charm- ing rosettes and intricately convoluted helictites. The Iviitrancc to Colossal CaviTii. Henry Clay Monument. THE COLOSSAL CAVERN. 127 hundred feet and then turns westward for the same dis- tance, thus making the surveyed portion three thousand feet in all, though often given as having a much greater length. In it are pits, domes, tumbkj-downs, and various more or less interesting formations; l)ut it is not included in the route over which visitors are usually taken. At the termination of the Long Island is the Pulpit on one side and the Dining Room on the other. The ceiling of the Dining I\oom is the native rock, as smooth as if finished by trowt'l and float; a board Hoor is laid over the sand, and there are tables and benches for the accommodation of those who wish to lunch. Beyond is the Bicycle Avenue, trending to the right for three hundred feet and then rejoining the main cave. The crystalline formations are wonderful. The roof under which we are now passing is spangled with efflorescences that mimic the starry heavens, with here and there a comet or a meteoric shower. Gypsum crusts sometimes hang from al)0ve in sections several j^irds square, seemingly ready to drop if jarred. Both straight and curved crystals of selenite abound, the latter known as "oulopholites. " So many and splendid are they in one hall as to cause it to be named "The Grand Avenue of Flowers." On the walls singh' spikes six or eight inches long are frequent, and here and there we find a branching mass one or two feet long, like crystal stag-horns. Delicate lacelike webs are spi-end between clusters of flowers. The Bear-Robe looks like a mass of fur spread on the wall to dry: but we find it made up of hundreds of cryst;ils of seleuite wliose tips are stained by some black mineral, and the body of the mass is a soft grey. There are also fine botryoitlal, or grapelike, clusters. 128 THE COLOSSAL CAVERN. Strange enlargements and ramifications of the cav- ern now come to view, with here and there a window- like oi)ening into ghostly chambers whence weird ap- paritions seem to beckon to ns. Wonders crowd upon us. Climlnng a steep acclivity, the highest elevation in the cave, whence a ladder connects with a sliort passage leading to a bridge across the apex of an enor- mous dome whose i1oor lies one hundred and thirty- seven feet Ijelow, we drop fireballs, by which the walls are illuminated as the masses of flame gyrate to and fro. Formerly daring adventurers were lowered by a windlass to the bottom of this mighty dome ; but now there is a less dangerous way. We descend a flight of steps and pass through a gigantic gateway, twenty feet wide and sixty feet high, whose right-hand support is the largest stalag- mite in the cavern, its height being fully eighty feet. The writer suggested for this noble shaft the name of the Henry Clay ^Monument, and the name was approved by the management. On the left of the gateway is the finest example of the synclinal it has ever been my lot to see lielow ground. Tlic thick strata above had to yield to the enormous pressure brought upon them, and were thus crushed into the reversed arches that we be- hold. Passing reverently through what reminded me of the famous Redeemer Gate of the Kremlin at ^Moscow, we descend still farther by stone steps that wind around the base of the huge alabaster monument named for Kentucky's matchless orator and statesman, and sud- denly find ourselves in what seems like an open space, while aloft and around us is utter darkness. The guides tell us that we are at the lowest level of the cavern, two hundred and forty feet vertically lower than the original Everett Rock. Florence Avenue. THE COLOSSAL CAVERN. 131 fact that no names have as yet been given to places aii'l formations in the "New Discovery" makes description difficult. Ilelictite Grotto and Kosette Chamber are so called on account of the abundance of the formations thus indicated. This part of the Colossal Cavern is a perfect flower-garden, where the excited fancy may find in unsullied loveliness a crystal reproduction of almost every floral gem. The management wisely guartl these matchless decorations from spoliation ; but it is also to be hoped that such a wilderness of subterranean charms may soon be made accessible (if this has not already beeu done), so that it may be enjoyed by the general public. Meanwhile we understand the "New Discovery" can be visited only by special arrangement with the custodians of the cave, and even then only ])y small parties. The general similarity and the close proximity of the Colossal and the JMammoth eaves make it not at all improbable that they are connected hy avenues as yet undiscovered. On the other hand, it may be that tliey ai-e permanently and completely disconnected by means of such immense downfalls as the Eden Valley and the Doylt; \^alley, through whicli now runs the carriage-road between the entrances to tlie two cavcM-ns. Anyhow, it is well worth while for the tourist who visits one of these vast caverns to tak(> time to see the otlier also. AVIiile iu Diaiiy w;iys similar to each other, there are enougli points of difference to keep the interest alive. In all ages caverns have excited the awe and admiration of mjinkind, and in no pari of llie ktiown world are so many and sn^'li magniliccnt (•••iverns clustered togethei- as (»xist in iMJiiiondson Couiily. Ken- tucky. Such a marvelous i-egion is worlliy, not merely of a hnri'ie(l visit, bul of a leisui'rly so.ioui'u. eology-Geophysics Library 597 Geology niversity of California DS Angeles, CA 90024 i.irwve'SiTy o' C^cnta L<>s * L 006 466 631 6 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 001 130 447 4