Daily national Democrat., 1861-04-17


Ledger of April 18th has the following &C.
count of the discovery of new cave in that
vicinity:
On Tuesday last william Hannum, j. W
Roberts, &. L. Ramsey, and l.. Ash, discov'
cred the entrance to a cave, about three uille
| down the creek from jackson. The discov
cry was made in a somewhat singular man.
ner. One of the party shot hare at the
edge of thick clump Of buckeye bushes
! On going to look for it, hole in the ground
several feet in diameter was discovered. TC
all appearances it was the entrance to a vas
cavern. d. Hemming and D. Thompson be.
ing in the neighborhood, procee ed, in com
pany with the discoverers, on an expedition
of exploration. Hemming, we believe, was
the first to enter the mouth of the dark cav
ern- Just as though there might not have
been den of grizzlies inside ready to give
him dangerous reception The party ex-
plored to some extent, and found that the
cave was extensive, and that it had been
used for extraordinary purposes, and return
ed to town A high excitement was imme-
diately manifested, it being fully believed
from circumstances we shall relate, that il
had been the principal rendezvous of Joa-
quin and his band, and every one expecting
that important and perhaps distressing de-
velopments would be made upon complete
exploration.
On Wednesday, in company with twenty
five or thirty others, we visited the cave
After cambering down chimney like aper-
ture in the rocks for some distance, we land
ed on foothold of rubbish, composed of al
most everything in nature, and were in the
cave. There is another entrance, but not so
| frpp1 n thot h, vbi iol, on-,o1 Tbo ,
is about ninety feet long by seventy fl We feet
wide--the distance between floor and root
about twenty feet When the rubbish shall
have been removed from the cavern, the dis
tance will be much greater
Each man held lighted candle in his
hand, 10y which means the cavern was illu-
minated and the scene presented, although
not so gorgeous and magnificent as may be
seen in the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky
and in some other noted caverns, was never
| theless very fine Small crystaiized stalacti
ties, shining like briliants. studded the walls
and ceiling. Stalagmites were also observed
but not to any great extent The formation
! of the walls and roof appears to be princi-
pally Of limestone nature, with hundreds
of dninutive quartz leads or traces inter-
sperscd On one side of the cave large quartz
boulders are found. A quartz ledge crops
out close TO the mouth of the cave.
In the cave were found many ehaIred pie
ces of wood, and rock that had evidently
been used as fire place. An old blanket.
partially d@eayed, was also found, and any
number of beef bones-such as come from
the kitchen This, with other facts, convinc-
ed everybody that the cavern had been oc-
cupied for greater or less length of time 10y
human beings; and rs no one could make of
such place residence from choice, and as
it is so secluded as not to have been discov-
cred, or rather made publicly known, until
now, al hough hundreds have frequently
Travelled around st, the conclusion was drawn
that its Inhabitants must have been fugitives
from justice or banditti, The "trail of Joa-
guin was near the spot; some of his murder
Gus exploits were committed near there
among others, the murder of a jackson
butcher. AT the time ofthe celebrated Ran
cheria massacre, Mexicans were driven away
from the immediate ncighborhood of this
| cave.
One thing is certain, and that is that the
cave had been extensively occupied as a den
| 10y wild beasts. The traces Cf animals, rang
| ing from grizzlies through the grade of lion,
panther, wild cat, wolf and coyote, down to
hare and squirrels, are abundant We Sc
cured the skull of some animal and the ia "
| bones of several-some of them very large.
| One gentleman found tooth over two inches
| in length, large enough for mastadun, but
we don't believe a nastadon ever visited the
| cave.
! There are cqideOees that THIS is only one
chamber of the cavern, and that entrance to
other rooms will be found. There are other
| passages too narrow to admit of entrance.
An old Indian says there is another cave OF
great extent with many passages and rooms,
near the same spot. lie says his parents and
many other Indians iuhabited it a long time
| ago, but on certain occasion one of their
number entered an uneXplored passage, and
was never afterwards heard Of Since chen,
no Indian could be induced to go near the
mouth of the cavern, tRuch less to enter it.
| They believe the cavern to be the abode of
an evil spirit. Near the opening of the cave
we have given a very imperfect description
of, are the remains of two cabins, said to have
been occupied by Chinamen in 1852 Wheth
er JoaGuin murdered and buisied them with
scores of other victims, in seme as yet secret
portion of the cavern, ig a matter about
which We know nothing.
WoMAN's TEARs.-Y es, erdav, willie the
trial of Morris Bernstein was progressing in
the Court OF Sessions we observed a fine
looking young woman with beautiful tnfant
in her arms, walking back and forward in
great agitation and distress in the hall, not
far distant from where the trial was going on.
She was quiet and unobtrusive in manner,
but evidently in great tribulatiOn, the tears
coursing down her cheeks in streams, while
between her anxiety for her infant and some
other cause of unhappiness, she forgot to
wipe them away. II was picture to reach
the heart; the more so that she made no de.
monstraton of the cause of her wo and con-
ducted herself with such perfect proplietv.
Whether she had any connection with the
prisoner on trial, we are unable to say, but