The union Democrat. [volume] (Sonora, Calif.) 1854-1946, 1871-07-29
NUMBER s
A mammoth Cave ia 81 Dorado Cenasy.

correspondent of the Placerville Demo-
cas, who dates bis letter q Costumes Copper
Mine, writes as follows:
Having just COMPLETED temporary Sum-
mer residence on the rocky and somewhat
broken banks of the Middle Fork, hasten
to inform friends and the public generally
CONCERNING A CURIOSITY
that. If thoroughly explored, may eventually
eclipse the bounding leaps of Niagara. or the
playing cataracts of Yosemite. Why caves
exist, how formed, and for what reasons de-
posted in the silent bosom and quiet recesses
of terra .Ss7aa, am at loss to determine,
and willingly leave the performance of that
part to the cultivated attachments of the ge-
illogical fraternity. But that one of these
wonderful freaks of Nature is within stones
throw OF where now sit writing, is certainly
| reality, and that its grandeur and magni6-
eenee present a marvellous piece Of workman
ship, all that have witnessed il can testify.
1t was discoveredin 1859, but the discoveries
name have yet to learn. There are three
entrances into its elegant and beautifully in-
ished apartments. In company with a part
ner, and armed with two candles. we wan
dered through its various avenues, halls, and
suhterranean passages, for four hours, FREE
quently finding openings 80 small that ii was
necessary to lie down, and then, With worm
like movement of the body, obtain an en-
trance.
THE CAVERN is. EMBopiEp
in solid mass Of excellent marble. that can
be tayorably compared with that procured in
Italy, that has been the theme of poets and
admiration of travellers, from time immemo-
rial. Columns and pilasters, ornamented az
fkafr al vol,
irregular Intervals, enlist the VISITORS ntsen-
ton; while fine representations of tapestry,
cornice aud freseo work are engraved and
plainly visible on its wall. Every form Of
stalaesites imaginable droopingly hang sus-
pended, presenting the variegated colors of
the rainbow, and brilliantly sparkle from the
pale light ct a candle like thousand din
mends, while n like proportion of stalagmites
underneath, with their sugar-coated surfaces,
are constantly presented to view. Here and
there are carelessly piled bruised and broken
fragments OF these appropriate emblems Of
Infinite Wisdom thai have snceumbed to the
normal destructive qualities of man.. Curl
osity seekers, from appearances, evidently
tried to blacken or mar the innocent features
OF the honest cave.
| SEVERAL YEARS AGO
two Dutchmen, while hunting, fetched up at
its vestibule; fatigued from their perambula-
tons on top they laid down their guns, left
Fido, and experimental below. They went
and went, sometimes walking, at others Creep
ing, over boulders and under boulders, up
windings and down windings, in small rooms
then large ones, through avenues. narrow de-
files and halls, each going in q different di-
rection, yet terminating at the same place.
Finally exhausted nature asserted her laws
and stopped proceedings. Terribly bewil-
dered, with perpexed thoughts of uneasy i'm
faginations, they reclined that night on long
aforementioned bed of marble. During
the meantime Fido stood as sentinel at his
post, and the following day some miners trav-
cling the path that skirts the river bank,
were attracted hither by the mournful petit
tons of the anxious doggy banks, pats and
nodding Of the head, he pantomimed his
j wants. The Dutchmen were rescued from
the impending doom of horrible fate, and
doubtless, forever after, treated kindly their
faithful dog. -
/ THERE ARE MANY COMPARTMENTS
to this singularly constructed fabric that have
never yet been visited by man for in a dozen
different places the openings in the rocks not
being sufficient 10 even admit the hand, but
by applying the candle the light would stream
into apparently splendid and ca pacious vaults
beyond. No telling but what, if worked and
thoroughly exhumed, man might become
lost and wander within its meanderings for
days, and probably never emerge from its
slumbering recesses.
/ WHAT Becomes OF THE SuLPmUR USED UP.
hoa