The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1858-09-30
Misrellany.
THRILLING ADVENTURE !
Am Exploration of the Mael-
s1rOEn I'm the Kentucky
Cave.


the hero of which is understood to be the
son of Mr.. Prentice: At the supposed
and of what has always been considered
the longest avenue of the Mammoth Cave,
hine miles from its entrance, there Is
pit, dark, and deep, and terrible, known
as the Maelstrom. Tens of thousands
have gazed into it with awe while Bengal
lights were thrown down it to make its
fearful depths visible, but none had the
daring ever to explore it. The celebrated
guide Stephen, who was deemed insensi-
BILE to fear, was offered six hundred dollars
by the proprietors of the Cave if he would
descend to the bottom oft but he shrank
from the peril. A few years ago Teunes-
see professor, learned and bold man, re-
solved to do what no one before him had
dared do, and, making his arrangements
with care and prccaution, he had himself
l)wered down by strong rope hundred
feet; but at that point his courage failed
him, and he called aloud to be drawn ont.
No human power could ever have induced
him to repeat the appalling experiment.
a couple of weeks ago, however, a
young gentleman of Louisville, whose
nerves never trembled at mortal peril, be-
ing at the Mammoth Cave with Professor
Wright of our city, and others, determin-
ed, no matter what the dangers aud diff
culties might be, to explore the depths Of
the Maestrom. Mr. Proctor, the enter
prising proprietor of the Cave, sent to
Nashville and procured long rope, of
great strength, expressly for the purpose,
The rope and some necessary timbers were
borne by the guides and others to the pro-
posed point of exploration.
"The arrangements being soon complet-
ed, the rope, with heavy fragment of
rock affixed to it, was let down and swung
to and fro to dslodge any loose rocks that
would be likely to fall at the touch.
"Several were thus dislodged, and the
long continued reverberations, rising uD
like distant thunder from below, proclaim
ed the depth of the horrid chasm. Then
the young hero of the occasion, with sew
eral hats thrown 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 hava heard from his own lips an
account of his descent. Occasionally mas
ses of earth and rock went whizzing past,
but none struck him. Thirty or forty
feet from the top he saw ledge, from
which, as he judged from appearances,
two Or three avenues led off In different
directions. About hundred feet from
the top cataract from the side of the pit
Nent rushing down the abyss, and as he
descended by the side of the falling water,
and in the midst of the spray, ne felt some
apprehension that his light would be ex-
tinguished, but his care prevented this.
He was landed at the bottom of the pit, a
hundred and ninety feet from the top
"He found it almost perfectly circular,
about eighteen feet in diameter, with a
email opening at one point, leading to a
Gne 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 a
multitude of exquisite formations as pure
and white as virgin snow. Making him
self heard, with great effort, by his friends,
he at length asked them to pull him part.
ly up, intending to stop on the way and
explore cave that he had observed open
ing about forty feet above the bottom Of
the pit.
Reaching the mouth of that cave he
swung himself with much exertion into
it, and, holping 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, however, 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 securing the rope.
Fastening it to rock, he followed the
avenue $50 or 200 yards, to point where
he found it blocked by an impossible
avalanche of rock and earth.
Returning to the mouth of this ave.
nue. he beheld an almost exactly similar
mouth of another on the opposite side Of
the pit, but, not being able to swing him.
self into it, he refastened the rope around
bis body, suspended himself again over
the abyss, and shouted to his friends to
raise him to the top. The pull was an
exceedingly severy one, and the rope be-
ing ill-adjusted around his body, gave him
the most excruciating pain. But soon
his pain was forgotten in new and dread
full peril.
"When he was 80 feet from the mouth
of the pit, and 100 feet from the bottom