Elizabeth daily monitor. [volume] (Elizabeth, N.J.) 1868-1880, 1868-11-03
A WONDERFUL CAVE IN CON
NECTICUT.


A remarkable cavern has been re-
Gently discovered in Salisbury, town
ship in the northwestern corner of Con-
neclicut, which promises, when fully ex-
plored, to take rank among the natural
wonders Of the country. It lies in a
region of uncommonly beautiful scene
ly, and in the neighborhood of the twin
lakes with the name of which tourists
and hunters of the picturesque are
already familiar A Connecticut news
paper, Che Winsted Herald, contains
the following account of it by a Mr..
Dexter, of Salisbury
"The Cave is situated on the souther-
ly edge Of the farm of T. Miles, Esq,
some twenty-five or thirty rods from
the road running between the lakes,
and nearly-a half mile from the lake.
The entrance is at the bottom of asingu-
lar sink hole, of which there is several
in this vicinity. This sink is shaped
like an inverted cone, is perhaps fifty
feet across and twenty feet deep.
At the bottom of the sink on the north
side is rough hole in the rocks, not
by any means inviting in appearance
large enough for a person to crawl into
-four feet from the entrance il takes q
turn to the right, descends at an angle
of forty-fve degrees some ten or twelve
feet further. This specture is quite
small must be descended head first
and is tight squeeze at that.
Here occurred our first difficulty,
as some of the party were too large for
the hole. Albert Moore, t. w. Frink
and M. Frinkle having to remain out.
side. The party who finally effected an
entrance were J. B. Spencer, J. N.
Dexter, r. Fl. Ball, J. II. Russell, G.
H. Glens, L. f. Dexter Walter Niver,
Martin Harris, j. H. Pierce, of Sails
bury, and Henry Preston, of Dover, N.
Y. Fortunately we were joined soon
after our entrance by w. A. Miles, son
of the proprietor, and the discovcrer Of
the cave.
g The first cave is very irregular in
shape, twelve or fifteen feet high and
contains several beautiful stalactities
These are not pendant from the roof
but from shelves of rock on the sides
From this room there are several, gal
leries, or lateral assures leading into
the rock, enlarged in two or three
places to spacious chambers one of
these takes Il winding course through
the rock, and you descend by it to the
brook at the bottom of the cave, which
at the time of our visit. although nearly
dry, still contained water enough to
make our progress uncomfortable. The
route to the chamb ers below lies along
the bed of this brook. The passage is
from ten to twenty feet wide, though
in the centre rarely more than two feet
in height, the rocks coming together
at the sides. 1t is simply span be-
tween two strata of rocks washed out
by the water. I cannot give any guess
to the length Of this passage / only
know it took twenty minutes of hard
travelling to get through it. The water
had collected in the hollows of the
rock, and these pools usually came in
places where it was impossible to get
around them, SO we all got pretty
thoroughly dampened. AT the end of
this passage we came to the most beau
tiful chamber yet discovered. 1t is
nearly regular in shape, perhaps eight
by twelve feet, the roof of which is Il
perfect dome-in the centre OF which
is an opening, perfect ellipse in form,
about three feet long by two feet wide.
Above this is a small chamber, the roof
Of which is a white limestone rock
FROM the elliptical opening hangs a
fringe of stalactites, connected together
and tiuted like the folds of a curtain,
forming, indeed, a curtain of stone OF
the most exquisite pattern They do
not hang perpendiculary, but recede
toward thesides Of the dome. And the
sides of the chamber are large portions
Of the same formation as Che stalactites,
in wavy masses OF greenish east and
looking very much like ice probably
carbonate of lime while from the
shelving sides hangs myriads Of small
stallactites no bigger than pipe stem,