Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-10-30
From the Louisville journal Of Sept IA.
TERRIFIC ADVENTURE IN THE
MAMMOTH CAVE.
The NneIstrom Explored.

AT the supposed end Of what has always been
considered the longest avenue of the Mammoth
Cave, nine miles from its entrance, there is pit
dark and deep and terrible, known as the Mael-
strom. Tens of thousands have gazed into it
with awe whilst bengal-lights were thrown down
it to make its fearful depths visible, but none
ever had the daring to explore it. The ceebrat-
ed guide Stephen, who was deemed invisible to
fear, was offered six hundred dollars by the pro-
prietors Of the Cave if he would descend to the
bottom of it, but he shrank from the peril A
few years ago, Tennessee professor, learned
and bold man, resolved TO do what no man be-
fore him had dared do, and makingh his arrange
ments with great care and precaution, he had
himself lowered down by a rope hundred feet,
but, 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 experiment.
couple of weeks ago, however, a young
gentleman of Louisville, whose nerves never
trembled at mortal peril, being at the Mammoth
Cave with Professor Wright of our city and 9TH
ers, determined no matter what the dangers, or
difficulties might be, to explore the depths of
the Maelstrom. Mr. Proctor, the enterprising
proprietor of the Cave, sent to Nashville and
procured long rope of great strength express
y for the purpose. The rope and some neces-
sary timbers were borne by the guides and 9th
ers to the point of proposed exploration. The
arrangements being soon completed, the rope,
with heavy fragment of q rock affixed to it,
was let down and swung to and fro to dislodge
any loose rocks that would be likely to fall at
the touch. Several were thus dislodged and
the long continued reverberations rising up like
distantthunder from below proclaimed the depth
of the horrid chasm. Then the young hero of
the occasion, with several hats drawn over 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 Cimmerian gloom.
We have heard from his own lips an account
of his descent. Occasionally masses of rock
went whizzing past, but none struck him. Thr-
ty or forty feet from the top, he saw a ledge,
from which, as he judged from appearances two
or three avenues led off in different directions.
About hundred feet from the top a cataract
from the side of the pit went rushing down the
abyss, and as he descended by the side of the
falling water and in the midst of the spray, he
felt some apprehension that his light would be
extinguished, but his care prevented this. He
was landed at the bottom of the pit, hundred
and ninety feet from the top. He found it al
most perfectly circular, about Is feet in dame
~; "Aeh HhAaiA at ohC punt, iCeullS
to a firm chamber of no great extent. He found
on the floor beautiful specimens of black silex
of immense size, vastly larger than were ever
discovered in any other part of the Mammoth
Cave, and also multitude of exquisite forma-
tons 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
that he had observed opening about forty feet
above the bottom of the pit. Reaching the
mouth of that cave, he swung himself with much
exerion into it, and, holding the end of the rope
in his hand, he incautiously let it go, and it
swung out beyond his reach. The situation was
fearful 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 possible with
out falling, succeeded in securing the rope
Fastening it to a rock, he followed the avenue
loo or 200 yards to point where he found it
blockaded by an impossible avalanche of rock
and earth. Returning to the mouth of the 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 refasten-
ed 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 ex-
ceedingly severe one, and the rope being i'll ad-
justed around his body, gave him the most ex-
cruciating pain. But soon his pain was forgotten
in new and dreadful peril. When he was 80
feet from the mouth of the pit and 100 from the
bottom, swaying and swinging in 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 it passed. Sew
eral moments of awful suspense 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 extinguish-
ed with bottle of water belonging to himself,
and then the party above, though almost ex-
hausted by their labors, succeeded in drawing
him to the top. He was as calm and self pos
sessed as upon his entrance into the pit, but all
of his companions, overcome by fatigue, sank
down upon the ground and his friend, Profess
or Wright, from over exertion and excitement,
tainted and remained for time insensible.
The young adventurer left his name carved in
the depths of Maelstrom, the name of the first
and only person that ever gazed upon its mys-
teries.
PERILS ON THE STAKFD PLAINs-El T1ano