A Book of the United States: Exhibiting its geography, divisions, constitution, and government ... and presenting a view of the republic generally, and of the individual states; together with a condensed history of the land, from its first discovery to the present time. The biography of about two hundred of the leading men: a description of the principal cities and towns; with statistical tables
History
A Book of the United States: Exhibiting its geography, divisions, constitution, and government ... and presenting a view of the republic generally, and of the individual states; together with a condensed history of the land, from its first discovery to the present time. The biography of about two hundred of the leading men: a description of the principal cities and towns; with statistical tables
United States -- Biography; United States -- Description and travel; United States -- History
higher than my head. I took my cane and gave a sweep the whole length
of it, when down they fell; but soon, like so many imps, they tormented
us until we reached the narrow defile, when they left us. We returned
by Wilkins’s armed chair, and back to the second hopper, where I found
the mummy before-mentioned, and which had been placed there by Mr.
Wilkins, for preservation in another cave.’
_Indiana Cave._――In the southern part of Indiana there is a remarkable
cave, which abounds in Epsom Salts, and which is thus described by
Mr. Adams.――‘The hill in which it is situated, is about four hundred
feet high, from the base to the most elevated point, and the prospect
to the south-east, in a clear day, is exceedingly fine, commanding an
extensive view of the hills and valleys bordering on Big Blue river.
The top of the hill is covered principally with oak and chesnut.
The side to the south-east is mantled with cedar. The entrance is
about midway from the base to the summit, and the surface of the cave
preserves in general about that elevation; although I must acknowledge
this to be conjectural, as no experiments have been made with a view
to ascertain the fact. It is probably owing to this middle situation
of the cave, that it is much drier than is common.
‘After entering the cave by an aperture twelve or fifteen feet wide,
and in height, in one place, three or four feet, you descend with easy
and gradual steps into a large and spacious room, which continues about
a quarter of a mile pretty near the same in appearance, varying in
height from eight to thirty feet, and in breadth from ten to twenty. In
this distance the roof is in some places arched, in others a plane, and
in one place, particularly, it resembles an inside view of the roof of
a house. At the distance above-named the cave forks, but the right hand
fork soon terminates, while the left rises by a flight of rocky stairs
nearly ten feet high, into another story, and pursues a course at this
place nearly south-east. Here the roof commences a regular arch, the
height of which from the floor varies from five to eight feet, and the
width of the cave from six to twelve feet――which continues to what is
called the Creeping Place, from the circumstance of having to crawl
ten or twelve feet into the next large room. From this place to the
Pillar, a distance of about one mile and a quarter, the visitor finds
an alternate succession of large and small rooms variously decorated;
sometimes mounting elevated points by gradual or difficult ascents,
and again descending as far below; sometimes travelling on a pavement,
or climbing over huge piles of rocks, detached from the roof by some
convulsion of nature, and thus continues his route until he arrives at
the _Pillar_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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