The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1852-07-24

dOmes numerous rivers, cats acts and s2 pits
and Stephen estimates the aggregate length Of
the different corridors that br,och OIL at the sides
tmost Of which ara not visited by travellers) at
several hundred milss. Evor, rood has some
thing to wonder at. Every eighth Of a mile has
some miracle which it wonle, .ske a newspaper
column to describe, Adjectiyss would give out,
If your patience did not. think shall try.
manly, to convey to you the impression which
the visit to the cave made upon me-us,ny as
much special description as is necessary fer ,!is
but referring you to the Guide. Books for de
tailed account Of its wonders.
That the Mammoth Cave ia an antiquity Of the
world before the Flood-a city Of giants, which
an earthquake swallowed and which chance
roof OF rocks ha. projected from being sffaced by
the Deluge and by the wear Of the elements for
subsequent nges--is one of the fances which its
strange phenomena force upon the mind. Al is
80 architectural. 1t is not vast underground
cavity, raw and dirty, but a surcesson Of halls,
dUmes aud corridors streets, ,hv-nues and arches
all under ground but all telling Of the design and
proportion Of majestic primeval metropolis II
Is not cave, hut a city i,runs--a city from
which sun moon and stars have been taken away.
whose day OF judgment has come and passed, and
over which chaos has been heaped and new
world been created and grown old BY what ad.
mrabld laws Of unknown architecture those
mammoth roofs and ceilings are upheld, is every
travellers wondering question In some shape
OF other, heard each of my companions expires
this. No modern builder could throw UP such
vast yaulted arches and SO unaccountably sustain
them And all else is keeping. The cornceS
and columns, aises and galleries, are gigantical
ly proportionate and as mysteriously upheld.
Streets after streets-nles after mIles-seem t.
have been left only half in ruins, and here and
there is an effect as if the basement and lower
stories were encumbered with fragments audrub
Osh, leaving you to walk on level, with the
capitals and floors once high above the pave
ment 1t might be described as a mammoth
Hercuaneum first sepuchred with over topping
mountains, but swept and choked afterwards BY
the waters Of the Deluge, that found their way
to its dark streets in their subsding. What
scenery and machinery all this will be for the
poets Of the Vest, by and by Their P4rnassus
is 4" a house ready furnished
We were walking, meantime, with feet con
structed since Adam and Eve and the roughness
uf the way was very modern and uneudurable
Up hill or down dale, land there was great dea
Of ascending and descending every step had to
be picked over broken rocks, by the light of the
lamp and whore there WIS 20 much to be seer
above and around ia, the careless steps were
many, and tie twists aud scratches abundant
Now and then we came 20 the foot Of ladder
and sort Of ascent up n chimney was 70 he per
formed 10y the very ladies' and gentlemen who
had just been wondering at the ,ubmit,es Of theil
route. Or, there was n ladder to lead US still
more pokerl.hIy downward One place, called
" the Fat Mans Misery" was the mere zg1ay
through cracks in the rock. Another was quar-.
ter OF "A mile called :" The Valley pf Humility %