Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, during the Year 1844: By a Visiter — John Shaqi
Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, during the Year 1844: By a VisiterBullitt, Alexander Clark
History
Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, during the Year 1844: By a Visiter
Bullitt, Alexander Clark
Bullitt, Alexander Clark, 1807-1868; Mammoth Cave (Ky.)
On being summoned to breakfast the next morning, we ascertained that a
large party of ladies and gentlemen had arrived during our absence,
who, like ourselves, were prepared to enter the Cave. They, however,
were for hurrying over the rivers, to the distant points beyond--we,
for examining leisurely the avenues on this side. At 8 o'clock, both
parties accompanied by their respective guides and making a very
formidable array, set out from the hotel, happy in the anticipation of
the "sights to be seen." It was amusing to hear the remarks, and to
witness the horror of some of the party on first beholding the mouth
of the Cave. Oh! it is so frightful!--It is so cold!--I _cannot_ go
in! Notwithstanding all this, curiosity prevailed, and down we
went--arranged our lamps, which being extinguished in passing through
the doorway by the strong current of air rushing outwards, there arose
such a clamor, such laughter, such screaming, such crying out for the
guides, as though all Bedlam had broke loose,--the guides exerting
themselves to quiet apprehensions, and the visiters of yesterday
knowing that there was neither danger nor just cause of alarm, doing
their utmost to counteract their efforts, by well feigned exclamations
of terror. At length the lamps were re-lighted and order being
restored, onward we went. The Vestibule and Church were each in turn
illuminated, to the enthusiastic delight of all--even those of the
party, who were but now so terrified, were loud in their expressions
of admiration and wonder. Arrived at the Giant's Coffin, we leave the
Main Cave to enter regions very dissimilar to those we have seen. A
narrow passage behind the Coffin leads to a circular room, one hundred
feet in diameter, with a low roof, called the Wooden Bowl, in allusion
to its figure, or as some say, from a wooden bowl having been found
here by some old miner. This Bowl is the vestibule of the Deserted
Chambers. On the right, are the Steeps of Time, (why so called we are
left to conjecture,) down which, descending about twenty feet, and
almost perpendicularly for the first ten, we enter the Deserted
Chambers, which in their course present features extremely wild,
terrific and multiform. For two hundred yards the ceiling as you
advance is rough and broken, but further on, it is waving, white and
smooth as if worn by water. At Richardson's Spring, the imprint of
moccasins and of children's feet, of some by-gone age, were recently
seen. There are more pits in the Deserted Chambers than in any other
portion of the Cave; and among the most noted are the Covered Pit, the
Side-Saddle Pit and the Bottomless Pit. Indeed the whole range of
these chambers, is so interrupted by pits, and throughout is so
irregular and serpentine and so bewildering from the number of its
branches, that the visiter, doubtful of his footing, and uncertain as
to his course, is soon made sensible of the prudence of the
regulation, which enjoins him, "not to leave the guide." "The Covered
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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