The Illinois free trader and LaSalle County commercial advertiser. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1841-1843, 1841-11-19

number of persons labo.ing under chronic
diseases intended to take up their abode
within the cave, but were disappointed,
owing 10 the accommodation within not
being completed. Fhe peculiarly Of the
air of the cave, its extraordinary influence
on the healthy as well as diseased, would
constitute a perfect study for the medical
philosopher. It's temperature is 60 de-
grees Fahrenheit, summer and winter. 1t
is never degree above or below 60. No
thing putrilies in the cave. The water
pipes which conduct the water to the salt
pelre watts in 1914, are now in perfect
preservation, and the corn cobs where the
oxen were fed 80 years ago, are as sound
as at that day. Lamps burn with more
brIliancy within than without tina cave.
This occurs in every part of it. The cave
is abundant in minerals, such as suIphalc
o! lime, or gypsum; epson and gIaubcr
salts; nitrous earth, chalk, sand flint, pob
bles, red and grey ochre, calcareous spar,
chalcedony, chryslalized carbonate Of
lime, polite, chrystals Of quartz, &c. The
discoveries recently made in the cave
greatly exceed inextcnt all that was known
at the period Of your stay here. 4 gen
tlemen Of unqUestioned veraci;y, and who
has ample opportunities for acquiring cor
rect information, having resided there and
III its vicinity thirty years, gives it as his
opinion, that there are no less than two
hundred square miles OF cave. No wild
beast, reptile, or vermin, has ever been
prevailed upon to enter the Mammoth
Cave ; often has this been tried. What
this popularity results from, know not.
Nothing inhabi,s the Mammoth Gave but
the bat during the winter, and they are
confined to L particular spot. | am told
there arc rats, but have never seen them.
The country south Of the cave, which, in
1913, was barren, is now grown over with
timber
The cave is eight miles from the drip
ping springs, and eight and a half miles
from Fruits Knob The turnpike from
Louisville runs within six miles of it.
No man can form the most remote idea !
of this, the most wonderful of all nature's
wonders, except by a visit to it; and to
describe it, with all its recent discoveries,
would require volume. The discovc-
ries made in the cave within the last two
years, are, in the estimation Of many, bet
ter worth seeing, than all the cave as pre-
viously known. They consist OF numer-
Gus branches or avenues, domes Of great
size and beauty, and river terminated by !
lake. Until recently, no person had
explored that branch of the cave in which
the bottomless pit is situated, beyond the
pit; now the most interesting and extern
sive part of the cave is beyond the pit.
For this discovery we are indebted to a
gentleman of Georgetown, KY, named
Stevenson. He asccrtaiued that the pit
was nothing but chasm of great depth,
extending across the cave, and therefore
cot ladder of sufficient length to reach
over. On this ladder this daring man. The
guide, and some two or three others,
crossed the deep and lrighltul chasm, and,
on reaching the opposite part, found them
selves in a cave of considerable size,
which, after exploring the distance Of two
miles, brought them, to their astonish-
ment and delight, to the celebrated river
Of the cave. 1t is to this region Of the
cave, unknown until the last two years,
where you meet with the great domos,
the cataract, the river, the lake, and the
gigantic slalagmite columns. In order to
crafty the numerous visiters with view
of this deeply interesting section of the
cave, the proprietor has had large and
strong bridge with suitable railways cree
ted over the bottomless pit, rocks have
been removed, SO as to render walking
pleasant in the different avenues, stair
steps have been placed where required,
boats are in readiness for those who feel
inclined to take aquatic excursions on the
river, and Bengal lights may be had by
such as wish to witness the sublime spec
tacle which is exhibited by an illumina-
ton Of the various domcs.
The river is three miles from the mouth
of the cave. Where you first strike it, it
is not very wide, but Of great depth as
you descend it, it becomes wider, and it
has gentle current. | have never de-
seconded the river more than half mile,
but it is, from the point where you first
see it to the lake, five miles, and Mr.. Go
rim, a highly respectable lawyer, and a
former representative Of Warren county,
informs me that there is sulliciency Of
water in this river to tioat the largest class
of steamboats,. 1t is III this river where
those fish without eyes have been found,
: 1t was the opinion OF professor Davidson,
of Pennsylvania University, (who wrote a
pamphlet respecting the cave that those
l,eh bod al l,l II.