Hovey's Handbook of the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky: A Practical Guide to the Regulation RoutesHovey, Horace Carver
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Hovey's Handbook of the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky: A Practical Guide to the Regulation Routes
Hovey, Horace Carver
Mammoth Cave (Ky.)
We may imagine ourselves, therefore, as having landed at Rocky Inlet, on
the farther shore of the wonderful Echo River. Soon we are greeted by
the music of the waterfall in Cascade Hall. To our right are
Stephenson’s Avenue, whose principal attraction is Neptune’s Cups, and
the Aquarius Avenue, leading to Roaring River; both of which offer
matters of interest to the scientist, but are never visited by ordinary
tourists, who hasten on to other scenes more accessible. Wellington’s
Galleries are peculiar shelf-like projections. At Dripping Spring we
find a few stalactites. We pass in safety what the guides irreverently
name the Infernal Regions, Pluto’s Dome, and Old Scratch Hall—the latter
being surprisingly scratched all over, while the only trails of serpents
in Serpent Hall are the freaks of nature observed as winding channels
overhead. The fact should be noted that this is high-water mark for Echo
River in time of flood. Hence we take particular interest in the opening
from Serpent Hall to Ganter Avenue as our only exit at such times,
running as it does for eight thousand five hundred feet to the Wooden
Bowl Room, near the Giant’s Coffin in the Main Cave. We are assured,
however, that visitors are seldom so unlucky as to get caught by such a
sudden rise of the waters. We have now entered Silliman’s Avenue, named
for the late Professor Silliman of Yale University. In the Valley-Way
Side-Cut are singular crystals of gypsum that grow in the ground, whence
they are dug up, like so many potatoes. Beyond the Hill of Fatigue
stands the Great Western, resembling an ocean steamer, her helm
hard-a-port. By mounting a ledge between the Vale of Flowers and Rabbit
Rock, and following Rhoda Arcade for about five hundred yards amid
interesting incrustations, we find three domes, named for different
members of the Jesup family, the highest and most symmetrical being
Lucy’s Dome, connected by a lofty archway with the other two. Immense
alabaster curtains hang on the walls, and the effect when illuminated
from the archway is grand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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