Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-09-14
Terrific Adventure i'm the Mammoth
Cave.

At the supposed end of what has always
beer considered the longest avenue of the
Mammoth Cave, nine miles from its entrance,
there is pit, dark and deep and terrible,
known as the Maelstrom. TeDs of thousands
have gaZed into it with awe whilst bengal
lights were thrown down it to make its fear
full deptls visible, but none ever had the
daring to explore it. The celebrated guide
Stephen, who was deemed insensibie 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 srhank from the
peril. a few years ago, Tennessee pro-
fessor, a learned and bold man. resolved to
do what no one before him had dared do, and,
making his arrangements with great care and
precautiOn, he had himself lowered down by
a strong rope a 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.
4 couple of weeks ago however young
gentleman of Louisville, whose nerves never
trsinbled at mortal peril, being at the Mann
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 enterprising proprietor of the Cave, sent
to Nashville and procured a long rope of
SItfI pIc-Htl iOT the pun poSt. ihC
rope and some necessary timbers were borne
by the guides and others to the point of pro-
posed exploration. The arrangements being
soon completed. the rope, with heavy frag-
rnent of rock affixed to it. was let down and
SWING 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
distant thunder from below, proclaimed the
6antb If tho hnrPiH oh ThaD the
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 Zimmerman gloom.
We have heard from his own lips an account
of his descent. Occasionally masses of earth
and rock 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 off in
different directions. About a hundred feet
from the top, cataract from the side of the
pit went rushing down the abyss, and a. he
descended the side of the falling water and
in the midst of the spray, he felt some appre-
hensiOn 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 almost per-
fectly circular about Is feet in diameter,
with small opening ut one point, leading
to a fine chamber of no great extent. He
found on the floor beautiful specimens of
black slick of immense size, vastly larger
than were ever discovered in any other part
of the Mammoth Cave, and also u. 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 phil him partly up, intending to stop
on the way and explore a 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 ex-
crtiOn into it, aud. holding the end of the
rope in his hand, he incautously let it 20,
and 1t swung out apparently beyond his reach.
The situation was a fearful one, and his
friends above could do nothing for him. Soon
however he made a hook of the end of his
lamp, and, by extending himself as far over
the verge as possible without falling, he sue
ceedcd in securing the rope. Fastening it TO
a rock, he followed the avenue $50 or 200
yards to a point where he found it blocked
by an impossible avalanche of rock and earth.
Returning 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
fastened 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 around his body, gave him
the most eycruciating 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-ar, 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. Several mo-
ments of awful suspense to those above and
still more awful to him below ensued To
them and him a fatal and instant catastrophe
seemed inevitable. But the fire was extn-
guished with a bottle of water belonging to
himself and then the party above. though
exhausted by their labors, succeeded in draw
ing him to the top. He was as calm and
as upon his entrance into the
pit, but all Of his companions, overcome 10y
fatigue, sank down upon the ground, and his
friend Professor Wright, from Over-excrtion
and excitement, tainted and remained for a
time insensibe
The young adventurer left his name carved
in the depths of the MaelstrOm-thc name of
the first and only person that ever gazod
upon its mysteries.