Litchfield enquirer., 1858-09-23
FEARFUL ADV FIXTURE IN THE
 MAMMOTH CAVE.
THE MAELsrRoM EXPLORED.

lsOuiSViile JOurnat Oi SCpttHutT 11su' !" WI" liam c. Prentice, the son of George D Prem tice
 At the supposed end of what hos always been considered the longest avenue of the Mammoth Cave, nine miles from it's entrance, there is a pit dark and deep and terrible, known as the Maelstrom. Tens of thousands have gazed into it with awe whilst bengal-lights were thrown down it 10 make it's fearful dcptf@ wis iblc but none ever had the daring to explore it. :. The. celebrated guide, Stephen. who was deemed ifisensible to fear, was offered SIX hun oircd dollars by the proprietors of the Cave ii he would descend 10 the bottom Of 1t, but ne s!lrauk from the peril. A few years ago q T nlessee professor a learned and bold man, resolved to do what D6 one before him had cared to do, aud. making hisArrangements with great care and precantion, ne had himself low cred down by strong rope hundred feet, bue at that point his courage failed him, and he called aloud to be drawn out. No human tower could ever have induced him to repeat the appalling experiment.
 A couple of weeks ago, however, young gentleman of Louisville, whose nerves never trenibled at tmortal peril. being at the Mammoth Cave with Professor Wright, of our city, and
 ilers determiued,s no matter what the dan g.rs and difficulties might be, to explore the depths of the Maclstrom Mr. Proctor, the !cnterprzing proprietor of the Cave, sent to Nashville and procured a long rope of great strength, expressly for the purpose. The rope and some necessary timbers were borne by the guides and others to the point of proposed ex- I ..uratien The arrangements being soon conl- Iittcd, the rope, with heavy fragment ofrock affixed to it, was let down and swung to and fro to disledge any loose rocks that would be likely to fall at the touch. Several were thus dislodged, and the long-continued reverbera- tions, rising up like distant thunder from below, ,reclaimed the depth of the horrid chasm.- Then the young hero of the occasion, with sev- eraI hats drawn over his head to protect 1t as far as possible against any masses falling from above, and with a light in his hand and the rope fastened around his body, took his place over the awful pit, and directed the half-dozen w io held the end of the rope, to let him down into the Cimmerian gloom.
 We have heard, from his own lips, an ac- count of his descent. Occasionally masses of rock and earth went whizzing past, but none struck him. Thirty or forty feet from the top, he saw a ledge, from which, as he judged by appearances, two or three avenues led otf ln d fftreut directions. About an hundred feet from the top, cataract from the side Of the 1t went rushing down the abyss, aud, as he descended by the side of the falling water and in the midst of the spray, he felt some alTre- hensions that ais light would be extinguished, but his care prevented this. He was landed at the bottom of the pit, an hundred and nine ty feet from the top. He found it almost per frctly circular, about eighteen feet in diameter, with q small opening at one point, leading to fine chamber of no great extent. He found on the floor beautiful specimens of black sex of immense size, vastly larger than were ever dis covered in any other part of the Mamm oth ~Guvc, uud also multitude of exquisite forma- tious, as pure and white as, virgin snow- Ma king 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 that he had observed opening about forty feet above the bottom of the pit. Reaching the mouth of that cave, he swung himself vita much exertion into it, and, holding the end of the rope in his hand, he incautiouSy let it go, and it swung out apparently beyond his reach. The situation was a ftarful one, and his friends above could do nothing for him. Soon, however, he made hook of the end of his lamp, and by extending himself as far over the verge as possible without falling he suc- c',eded in securing the end of the rope. Fas- ,ttlling it to a rock, he followed the avenue l50 or 200 yards, to point where he found it blockaded by an impossible avalanche of rock and earth. Returning to the mouth of this avenue, he b,hed an almost exactly similar inouth of another, on the opposite side of the ait but, not being able to swing himself into it, he re-asteiled the rope around his body, sus- pended himself again over the abyss, and shout d to his friends to raise him to the top. The .hll was an exceedingly severe one, and the rope, being i'll adjusted about his body, gave hun excruciating pain. But soon his pain was forgotten in new and dreadful peril. When he was ninety feet from the mouth of the pit and 100 from the bottom, swaying and swing ing ill mid air, he heard rapid and excited words uf horror and alarm above, and soon learned that the rope by which he was upheld had ta- k.n fire from the friction of the timber over which it passed Several moments of awful suspense to ttose above, and still more awful to him below, ensued. To them and him fla tai and instant catastrophe seemed inevitable. But the fire was extinguished with bottle of water belonging to himself, and then the party above, though almost exhausted by their la $. Iors, succeeded in drawing him to the top.- He was as calm aud self-possessed as upon his -e4,tralce into the pit, but all of his companions, overcome by fatigue, sank down upon the ground, and his friend, Profess or Wright, from over-excrtion and excitement, tainted and re maillcd for time insensible.
 x. The young adventurer left his name carved in tic depths of the Maelstrom-the name of the first and only person that ever gazed upon 5 its mysteries. , a
 :. Ms-A little girl belonging to a German fam iysvsidipgia Andoyer, fell into well a day or two;since, while playing around it, pungng head foremost Her little brother missed her, aud locked into the well and seeing the water move, ran some ten rods to the house for his inother and wbea she arrived at the spot the little girl was clinging to the stones of the well with her head out of the water. She was res