Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/473

Rh MAMMOTH CAVE 449 The chief points of interest are arranged along two lines of exploration, besides which there are certain side excursions. The &quot;short route&quot; requires about four hours, and the &quot;long route&quot; nine. Audubon s Avenue, the one nearest the entrance, is seldom visited, except by the bats that hang from the walls in clusters like swarms of bees. The Gothic Avenue contains numerous large stalactites and stalagmites, and an interesting place called the Chapel, and ends in a small double dome and cascade. Among the most surprising features of cave scenery are the vertical shafts that pierce through all levels, from the uppermost galleries, or even from the sink-holes, down to the lowest floor. These are styled pits or domes, according to the position occupied by the observer. A crevice behind a block of stone 40 feet long by 20 wide, called the Giant s Coffin, admits the explorer to a place where six pits, varying in depth from 65 feet to 220 feet, exist in an area of 600 yards. This includes Gorin s Dome, which is viewed from a point midway in its side, and is by many regarded as the finest room in the cavern. Others admire more the Mammoth Dome, at the termina tion of Spark s Avenue, where a cataract falls from a height of 250 feet amid walls wonderfully draped with stalactitic tapestry. The Egyptian Temple, which is a continuation of the Mammoth Dome, contains six massive columns, two of them quite perfect, and 80 feet high and 25 feet in diameter. The combined length of these contiguous chambers is 400 feet. By a crevice above they are con nected with an arm of Audubon s Avenue. Lucy s Dome, about 300 feet high, is supposed to be the loftiest of all these vertical shafts. A pit called &quot;the Maelstrom,&quot; in Croghan s Hall, is the spot most remote from the mouth of the cave ; a son of Prentice, the poet,_ permitted himself to be lowered 190 feet by a rope to the bottom, in 1859. There are some fine stalactites near this pit, and others in the Fairy Grotto and in Pensico Avenue ; but, consider ing the magnitude of Mammoth Cave, its poverty of stulactitic ornamentation is remarkable. The wealth of crystals is, however, surprising. These are of endless variety and fantastic beauty. Besides the sparkling vault of the Star Chamber (300 feet long and 80 high), there are halls canopied by fleecy clouds, or studded with mimic snowballs, and others displaying various grotesque resem blances on the walls and ceiling. Cleveland s Cabinet and Marion s Avenue, each a mile long, are adorned by myriads of gypsum rosettes and curiously twisted crystals, called &quot;oulopholitcs.&quot; These cave flowers are unfolded by pressure, as if a sheaf were forced through a tight binding, and the crystal fibres curl outward from the centre of the group. Thus spotless arches of 50 feet span are embellished by floral clusters and garlands, hiding nearly every foot of the grey limestone. The botryoidal formations hanging by thousands in Mary s Vineyard resemble mimic clusters of grapes, as the oulopholites resemble roses. Again there are chambers with drifts of snowy crystals of the sulphate of magnesia, the ceilings so thickly covered with their efflor?scence that a loud concussion of the air will cause them to fall like the flakes of a snow storm. Many small rooms and tortuous paths, where nothing of special interest can be found, are avoided as much as possible on the regular routes ; but certain disagreeable experiences are inevitable. There is peril also in the vicinity of the deep pits. The one known as the Bottomless Pit was for many years a barrier to all further exploration, but is now crossed by a wooden bridge. Long before the shaft had been cut as deep as now, the water flowed away by a channel gradually contracting to a serpentine way, so extremely narrow as to be called the Fat Man s Misery. The walls, .only 18 inches apart, change direction eight times in 105 yards, while the distance from the sandy path to the ledge overhead is but 5 feet. The rocky sides are finely marked with waves and ripples, as if running water had suddenly been petrified. This winding way conducts one to River Hall, beyond which lie the crystalline gardens that have been described. It used to be said that, if this narrow passage were blocked up, escape would be impossible ; but lately an intricate web of fissures, called the Corkscrew, has been discovered, by means of which a good climber, ascending only a few hundred feet, lands 1000 yards from the mouth of the cave, and cuts off one or two miles. The waters, entering through numerous domes and pits, and falling, during the rainy season, in cascades of great volume, aro finally collected in Elver Hall, where they form several extensive lakes, or rivers, whose connexion with Green river is known to be in two deep springs appearing under arches on its margin. Whenever there is a freshet in Green river the streams in the cave are joined in a continuous body of water, the rise some times being 60 feet above the low-water mark. The subsidence within is less rapid than the rise ; and the streams are impassable for about seven months in each year. They are navigable from May to October, and furnish interesting features of cave seen pry. The first approached is called the Dead Sea, embraced by cliffs 60 feet high and 100 feet long, above which a path has been made, XV. 57