Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-07-30
Remarkable Cases in the PatagOnian
or MOWrv Mines fm Arizona.

Remarkable Cases in the PatagOnian
or MOWry Mines in Arizona.
A correspondent of the San Francisco
Herald, describes some beautiful and re-
markable caves in Arizona:
Shortly after Mr.. Browne visited the
mine, the pick and drill of one Of the
miners, engaged in running drift on the
vein, opened into a new and beautiful
cave. The cave Is situated about one
hundred and fly feet below the mouth OF
the shaft, and l should judge tTo hundred
and fifty feet from the shaft, in, to me, an
unknown direction I think, however,
the one We went into had general north
eastern course. At the time we visited the
cave it had not been very thoroughly ex-
plored. Our party entered it with candles
and a guide For fifty feet after
leaving the drift the descent was quite
abrupt, then, to the other end, or
what was supposed to be the other end Of
the cave. distance Of one hundred and
fifty feet, the bottom was quite level,
though broken by large rocks. The sides,
which are over fifty feet apart and fully
forty ieet high, join nearly over the CEN
ter, forming am arch, the whole not much
unlike the general interior ofan elongated
and sharp-arched oven. These sides,
however, are covered with beautiful sta
lactites of all sizes and shapes, interspersed
with formation resembling, in purity and
delicacy, the crisp snow upon a frosty
morning. Some Of the formations are
nearly transparent, and bear a striking
resemblance to icieles hanging from the
! caves. Others are ola delicate wine color
and other ones appear like amber. The
| transparent formations are smooth; the
colored ones are rough, not unlike coral;
while the snowy posts have sharp, fine,
and bristle points upon their delicate sur
face, which caused US to handle the speci-
mems we obtained with great care, for the
two-fold object of protecting them and our
hands from injury. The dim rays Of our
candles were reflected in a brilliant and
pleasing manner, causing many exclama-
lions Of delight from the various members
of the party, rs some new beauty was dis
covered. brilliantly lighted up, this cave
would present a gorgeous appearance.
About two-thirds Of the way from the
entrance another cave, smaller and lower
than the one just mentioned, was visited
by several members of the party In this
cave, which is very low, we crawled about
fifty feet, when the passage became SO
narrow and the exertion so great that fur
ther progress was considered a useless
waste of time and physical force. The
bottom, top and sides of this smaller cave
are covered with beautiful water fOrma-
tions, pendant and growing upwards from
the solid limestone that forms the bedrock
of the caves. In this smaller cave an open
ing was formed, not large enough to admit
the passage Of a man, into which one of
the party dropped a stone, which fell 81
lently several seconds before it was heard
to strike the bottom, thus giving sure evil
dence Of still anotherand larger cave be-
low. As we were limited for time, we did
not attempt to explore the caves farther.
But, procuring such specimens as we could
with the aid Of crowbar and the eXpen-
diture of strength we returned to the up
per world again.
1t is my impression that the general
course of the caves is northeast by south |
west, and that the lowerElost one will be |
found to be very large and extensive /
The upper, and as at present known, [,
larger cave is perfectly dry. In the |
smaller one, whichis sGlue ten feet below |
the other several small basins or pools of .
water were fonnd, and the formations .
from the roof we're dripping. 1 have no /
doubt that in a few months. when the 4
whole series of caves have been thorough
ly explored, very large, beautiful and
extensive onos will be found, and proba-
bly, quite large body of water. 1t even
would not be surprising if large deposit
Of silver ore was found in one of the caves
as quite a large and well developed vein
Of are was being worked when the cave
was mad One thing is sure, it will be-
come great curiosity In this country Of
oddities.
The great difficulty, or rather singular
ty, In connection with this mine--nOt
inding water in any part ofit-that has
bothered the heads Of the scientific gentle
nen who have been engaged in working
he MOwry mine, has at last been solved
n peculiar manner, by the discovery of
hese caves. They had long heen theori-
ing and arguing upon tins singnlarity,
nd dcongratulating themselves upon their
good fortune in not having
0 procure expensive pumping-machinery.
n fact, they were even becoming embar-
assed for Il supply of water with which to
work the ores from their dry mime, when
uddenly they find that ali danger from
nd hope of water in the mine perished,
v the sudden entrance of the miners
ick into those beautiful caves.