KEY TO THE MAP 1. The Iron Gate 2. Hutchins’ Narrows 3. Kentucky Cliffs and the Corkscrew 4. The Church 5. Booth’s Amphitheatre 6. Standing Rocks 7. Grand Arch 8. Giant’s Coffin and Dante’s Gateway 9. Acute Angle and Cottages 10. Proctor’s Arcade 11. Wright’s Rotunda 12. The Cataracts 13. Fairy Grotto 14. St. Catherine City 15. Symmes’ Pit 16. Mummy’s Niche 17. Register Hall 18. The Bridal Altar 19. The Arm Chair 20. Lover’s Leap 21. Elbow Crevice 22. Napoleon’s Dome 23. Wilson’s Way 24. Lake Purity 25. Annette Dome 26. Lee’s Cisterns 27. Wooden Bowl Room 28. The Lost Way Found 29. Way to Pits and Domes 30. Side-Saddle Pit 31. Bottomless Pit 32. Covered Pit 33. Scylla 34. Charybdis 35. Putnam’s Cabinet 36. Darnall’s Way 37. Ariadne’s Grotto 38. Short Cut from Bottomless Pit to Gorin’s Dome 39. Reveller’s Hall 40. Grand Crossing 41. Pineapple Bush 42. Angelica’s Grotto 43. Scotchman’s Trap 44. Fat Man’s Misery 45. Bandit Hall 46. Brigg’s Avenue 47. Charlet’s Dome 48. Wyatt’s Domes 49. Balanced Rock 50. The Dead Sea 51. Charon’s Cascade D. Janin’s Landing 52. Cascade Hall 53. Serpent Hall 54. Valley-Way Side-Cut 55. The Great Western 56. Vale of Flowers 57. The Jessup Domes 58. Ole Bull’s Concert Hall 59. Fly Chamber 60. Sheep Shelter 61. Corinne’s Dome 62. Black Hole of Calcutta 63. Parrish’s Path 64. Crypt of Jewels 65. Washington Hall 66. Snow Ball Room 67. Floral Cross 68. Orpha’s Garden 69. Wisdom’s Path 70. Paradise 71. Zoe’s Grotto 72. Flora’s Garden 73. Vale of Diamonds 74. Helen’s Hall 75. Charlotte’s Grotto 76. Serena’s Arbor 77. Dismal Hollow 78. Clark’s Avenue 79. Harlan’s Avenue 80. Nicholson’s Avenue 81. Boone Avenue 82. Pinson’s Pass 83. Hawkins’ Way 84. Violet City [Illustration: Fairy Grotto] PREFACE A Personal Word. I imbibed an early taste for the sciences from my father, the late Professor Edmund Otis Hovey, D. D., one of the founders of Wabash College, and a pioneer geologist in Indiana. My annual vacations, during a busy professional career spanning over fifty years, have largely been given to underground explorations. When fifteen years old I began cave-hunting amid the charming grottoes near Madison, Indiana. An enthusiastic comrade, six years my senior, then proposed that we visit the Mammoth Cave. For certain reasons, while he went on, I got no farther at that time than Louisville; where, however, I bought, at the bookstore of Morton and Griswold, a copy of “Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, by a Visitor.” It was just out. It fired my boyish imagination, and it gave shape to much of my after life.