Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-10-14
NEW SERIES, NO. I46.
Fearful Adventuse in the Mammoth Cave
The Maelstrom Fxplored,


Louisville Journal of September llth, is Will
liam G. Prentice, the son of George D. Prem
tice
AT the supposed end of what has always
been considered the longest avenue of the Nam
moth Cave nine miles from It's entrance. there
is PIT, dark and deep and terrible known as
the Nlaelstrom. Tens of thousands have gazed
INTO 1T with awe whilst bengal-lghts were
throwndown it to make its fearful deptbs visible.
out none ever had the daring to explore it,
Ihe celebrated guide Stephen, who was deemed
lnsansible to fear, was offered six hundred dol
lars by the proprieters of the Cave if he would
descend to the bottom of it, but he shrank from
the peril. few years ago Tennessee profess
or, Il learned and bold man. resolved to do what
no one before him had dared to do, and making
his arrangements with great care and precau-
ton, he had himself lowered down by strong
rope hundred feet, butt at that point, his
courage failed him, and he called aloud to be
drawn out No human power could ever have
Induced him to repeat the appalling expert
ment
A couple of weeks ago, however, a young
gentleman of Louisville, whose nerve never
trembled at mortal peril, being at the Nam
moth Cave with Professor Wright, of our city,
and Others determined, no matter what the
dangers and difficulties might be, to explore the
depths of the Maelstrom. Mr.. Proctor, the
enterprisng proprietor of the cave, sent to
Nashville and procured a long rope of great
strength, expressly for the purpose. The ropes
and some necessary timbers were borne by
the guides and Others to the point of proposed
exploration. The arrangements being soon
completed the rope witha heavy fragment OF
rock affixed to it. was let down and swung to
and fro to disodge any loose rocks that would
be likely to fall at the touch Several were
thus dislogded, and the long-continued rever,
bration, rising up like distant thunder from be-
low, proclaimed the depth of the horrid chasm.
Then the young hero of the occasion with sew
eral hats drawn ever his head to protect it as
far as possible against any masses falling from
above, and with light in his hand and the rope
fastened around his body, took his place over
the awful pit and directed the half dozen men,
who held the end of the rope, to let him down
into the Commerian gloom.
We have heard, from his own lips, AN ac-
count of his descent. Occasionally masses of
earth and rock went whizzing past, bnt none
struck him. Thirty or forty feet from the top,
he saw ledge, from which, rs he judged by
appearances, two or three avenues led off in
different directions. About hundred feet
from the top, cataract from the side of the
pit went rushing down the abyss and, as he de-
scended by the side of the falling water and in
the midst of the spray, he felt some apprehen-
sion that his light would be extingushed but
his care prevented this. He was landed at the
bottom of the pit, hundred and ninety feet
from the top. He found it almost perfectly Cir
cular, almost eighteen feet in diameter, with
small opening at one point, leading to fine
chamber of no great extent, He found on the
floor beautiful specimens of black siex OF i'm
mense size, vastly larger than were ever discov-
cred in any other part of the Mammoth Cave,
and also multitude of exquisite formations,
as pure and white as virgin snow Making
himself heard, with great effort, by his friends,
he at length asked them to pull him partly up,
intending to stop on the way and explore cave
shat he had observed opening about forty feet
above the bottom Of the pit. Reaching the
Il bo himcnIF with
much exertion into it, and, holding the end of
the rope in his hand, he incautiously let it go,
and it swung out apparently beyond his reach,
The situation was fearful one and his friends
above could do nothing for him. Soon howev-
er he made hook of the end Of his lamp, and,
by extending himself as far over the verge as
possible without falling, he succeeded in secur-
ing the end of the rope. Fastening it to a rock,
he followed the avenue $50 or 200 yards to
point where he found it blockaded by an i'm
passable avalanch of rock and earth. Return
ing to the mouth of this avenue, he beheld an
almost exactly similar mouth of another on the
opposite side of the pit, but, not being able
to swing himself into it, he refastened the rope
around his body, suspended himself again over
the abyss, and shouted to his friends to raise
him to the top. The pull was an exceedingly
severe one, and the rope being i'll adjusted
. round his body gave him the most excruciating
pain But soon his pain was forgotten in a new
and dreadful peril When he was ninety feet
from the mouth of the pit and one hundred
9 from the bottom, swaying and swinging in
e mid-air, he heard rapid and excited words of
horror and alarm above, and soon learned that
the rope by which he was upheld had taken
: fire from the friction of the timber over which
t it passed. Several monuments of awful sus-
i pense to those above, and still more awful to
] him below, ensued To them and him fatal
and instant catastrophe seemed inevitable But
the fire was extinguished with bottle of wa
c ter belonging to himself and then the party
7 above, though almost exhausted by their labors.
| succeeded in drawing him to the top. He was
? as calm and selfpossessed as upon his entrance
il into the pit, but all of his companions, over
come by fatigue, sank down upon the ground
and his friend, Professor Wright, from over
/ exertion and excitement, tainted and remained
Q for time insensbe.
The young adventurer loft his name carved ir
the depths Of the Maelstrom-the name of the
first and only person that ever gazed upon it.
mysteries