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.)
From the Bandit's Hall, diverge two caves; one of which, the left,
leads you to a multitude of domes; and the right, to one which, _par
excellence_, is called the Mammoth Dome. Taking the right, we arrived,
after a rugged walk of nearly a mile, to a platform, which commands an
indistinct view of this dome of domes. It was discovered by a German
gentleman and the guide Stephen about two years ago, but was not
explored until some months after, when it was visited by a party of
four or five, accompanied by two guides, and well prepared with ropes,
&c. From the platform, the guides were let down about twenty feet, by
means of a rope, and upon reaching the ground below, they found
themselves on the side of a hill, which, descending about fifty feet,
brought them immediately under the Great Dome, from the summit of
which, there is a water-fall. This dome is near four hundred feet
high, and is justly considered one of the most sublime and wonderful
spectacles of this most wonderful of caverns. From the bottom of the
dome they ascended the hill to the place to which they had been
lowered from the platform, and continuing thence up a very steep hill,
more than one hundred feet, they reached its summit. Arrived at the
summit, a scene of awful grandeur and magnificence is presented to the
view. Looking down the declivity, you see far below to the left, the
visiters whom you have left behind, standing on the platform or
termination of the avenue along which they had come; and lower down
still, the bottom of the Great Dome itself. Above, two hundred and
eighty feet, is the ceiling, lost in the obscurity of space and
distance. The height of the ceiling was determined by E.F. Lee, civil
engineer. This fact in regard to the elevation of the ceiling and the
locality of the Great Hall, was subsequently ascertained, by finding
on the summit of the hill, (a spot never before trodden by man,) an
iron lamp!! The astonishment of the guides, as well as of the whole
party, on beholding the lamp, can be easily imagined; and to this day
they would have been ignorant of its history, but for the accidental
circumstance of an old man being at the Cave Hotel, who, thirty years
ago, was engaged as a miner in the saltpetre establishment of Wilkins
& Gratz. He, on being shown the lamp, said at once, that it had been
found under the crevice pit (a fact that surprised all,); that during
the time Wilkins & Gratz were engaged in the manufacture of saltpetre,
a Mr. Gatewood informed Wilkins, that in all probability, the richest
nitre earth was under the crevice pit. The depth of this pit being
then unknown, Wilkins, to ascertain it, got a rope of 45 feet long,
and fastening this identical lamp to the end of it, lowered it into
the pit, in the doing of which, the string caught on fire, and down
fell the lamp. Wilkins made an offer of two dollars to any one of the
miners who would descend the pit and bring up the lamp. His offer was
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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