The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-03-31
A Subterranean Voyage.

disappear
A Subterranean Voyage.
When we were publishing paper IN Lewis
burg, West Virginia, several years ago, very
singular accident befel young. man there
which we narrated briefly at.the time. lew
| dsys AGO we chanced to meet him here IN Mus
keSan' and he narrated his adventure at our
request. 1t occurred on the farm OF !ten. a.
| w. G. Davis in Greenbrier county, IN 1890.
| We give his story in his own words, as near as
we can recollect them:
"S g ~. was nloughing on Gen. Davis's farm in
1885 % said he. unsuspicious of being on in
secure % ground, when suddenly the earth seemed
to fall beneath me. saw the horses descend
ing, but was too frightened to let go the plough
handles. The pitch of the horses with the
earth gave my fall an impetus, and somehow
caught the name of one of them in my tall,
and SO held on instinctively. What thought
when falling can hardly tell. AT any rate, l
did some rapid thinking. When Landed fell
ON the horse whose name had hold Of and al
though the horse was instantly killed, was
merely stunned and confused. On recovering
myself looked up, and the hole through which
7 had fallen looked so small concluded must
have fallen $50 feet. My first thought was to
call for aid, but instantly recalled the fact
that was at least mile from Gen. Davls's
house and that there was not the remotest proba-
biEty that any one had seen my descent into the
earth. =, :,
"It was then early morning, and as had
brought out my dinner with we, no one would
miss me before nightfail- While going over
these facts in my own mind, heard the rush OF
water near at hand, and it occurred to me that
I must have fallen upon the bed of Sinking
creek, which. as you know, falls into the earth
above Frankfort, and does not come out but
once till it reaches the banks of the Greenbrier
river. To say where was, or to attempt to,
follow the subterranean passage, was the neXV
question. I sometimes took the team to my
own tenant stables, and therefore might not be
missed for days; so determined to follow the
stream. waded in it, and, judging from its
depth of from one to three feet, concluded 1t
must be the Identical sinking creek Spoken OF.
Leaving my dead companion behind me, l fol-
lowed the stream. For the most part 1 had
pretty easy work of it, but sometimes came to
a deep place, where was forced to swim for
considerable distance; again | was often pre-
cipitated headlong into deep water by the pre-
cipitous nature of the rocky bed of the stream.
"Talk about the darkness of the grave The
grave itself could not have been more lmpalpa-
bly dark than the passage l was following. Ihe
occasional rippling of the water was an mex,
pressibly dear sound to my ears. DAY and
nirbt were the same to me. At last wearied
with nv efforts, 1 laid down on a compatively
dry rock to rest, and must have slept tor hours.
When I awoke again / took to the water, care
fully ascertaining which way it ran, so as not
to lose my labor by retracing my steps. 1t
seemed TO me that the farther went the more
difficult progress became. When had gone
perhaps mile, came to place where the
archway narrowed so much that l had to crawl
on nv hands and knees in the water.
"Here was dilemma had not looked for.
tried either bank of the river, but found no
passage. could swim under water for con-
siderable distance, but the distance before me
was unknown, and 1 halted long before making
the dangerous venture. At last / concluded
that nv fate was equally doubtful in returning
as in proceeding, and plunged boldly into the
current and soon found that it was so swift in
its confined passage, that only needed to- hold
my breath to 60 through. In the course OF
twenty or thirty feet again got my head above
water, and took long breathing spell. Again
the archway above seemed to enlarge and the
bed of the stream became even. I sped along
comparatively rapidly, keeping my hands out
stretched to prevent my running against the
Jagged rocks. Wearied out, L again laid down
and slept soundly in my wet clothes.
"On awakening, pursued my course down
the subterranean stream, and at last in the long
distance ahead, saw glimmer that looked very
bright in the darkness I was then shut in.
Nearing this, found that it did not increase in
brightness and when I had gone perhaps
mile, came to. another place where my path
narrowed to the very tunnel filled by the water.
NV case was now becoming more desperate. i
could not possibly retrace my steps, So sub sub
urably overioyed to find myself swept into day
light. Exhausted and half drowned, / crept
out upon the land and was not long in recogni-
zing the objects about me. I had come out in
to the Greenbrier river, as knew from the ia
miliar look of Gen. Davis's mill on the bank.
On reaching home I found that had been
over forty-eight hours in making my -perilouls
journey of six miles underground" The hole
where this man went through is now fenced
round, On listening, one can plainly hear the
rush of water below, and stone thrown down
will sometimes be heard to splash in the stream.
(iEich.) Enterprise: