The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1871-04-06
IDAHO WORLD.
below THE EARTH's CRUST,

When we were pQU4iSA1AS P"P0.
In Lewisburg, West Virginia, several
wears AFRO, q very singular accident be-
fell Young man there, which he mar
rated briefly at the time. A few days
ago, we CHANGED to meet him in Muske-
ron. and be narrated his adventure, at
our request. It occurred on the farm
of Gen. A. w. G.. Davis, in Greenbrier
county, in 1856 We give the story
in his own words, as near as we can
recollect them:
81 was blowing on Gen. Davis farm,
in 1856, unsuspicious Of being on inse-
cure ground, when suddenly the earth
seemed to fall beneath me- ] saw the
horses descending, but was too fright
ened to let go the plow 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
fall; and so held on instinctively. What
I thought when falling, l can hardly
tell-at any rate | did some rapid
thinking. When I landed, | fell on the
horse whose name / had hold of; and
although the horse was instantly killed,
I was merely stunned and confused. On
recovering, I looked up, and the hole
through which had fallen looked so
small I concluded / must have fallen
full hundred and fifty feet. My first
thought was to call for aid, but in
stantly recalled the fact that / was at
least a mile from Gen. Davis house,
and that there was not the remotest
possibility that any one had seen my
descent into the earth
at was then early in the morning,
and as l had brought out my dinner
with me, no one would miss me before
nightfall While porting over these in
my mind, heard the rush of water close
at hand, and it occurred to me that |
must have fallen upon the bed of a
sinking creek, which, as you know,
falls into the earth above Frankfort, and
does not come out but once till it reach
es the banks of the Greenbrier river.
To say where | was, or to attempt to
follow the subteraneous passage, was
the next question. / sometimes took
the team to my own tenant stables, and
therefore might not be missed for some
days, and l determined to follow the
stream. INVADED into it, and Judging
from it's depth of from one to three
feet, concluded it must be the identi-
cal sinking creek spoken Of Leaving
my dead companion behind me, / fol-
lowed the stream. For the most part
I had pretty easy work of it, but some
times l came to deep place, where |
was forced to swim for considerable
distance; again was often precipitated
headlong into deep water by the pre-
cipitous, rocky bed of the stream.
"Talk about the darkness of the
gravel The grave itself could not have
been more impalpably dark than the
passage l was following. The occa-
sional ripping of the waters was an
inexpressibly dear sound to my ears.
Day and night was all the same to me.
At last, wearied with my efforts, l laid
down ON a comparatively dry rock to
rest, and must have slept for hours.
When awoke again, | took to the
water, carefully ascertaining which
way it ran, so as not to lose my labor
by retracing my steps 1t seemed to
me the further / went, the more difficult
progress became. When | had gone
about a mile, / came to place where
the archway narrowed SO much that l
had to use my hands and knees in the
water. Here was dilemma / had not
looked for. / tried either bank of the
river, but found no passage. l could
swim under water for a considerable
distance, but the distance before me
was unknown, and ] hesitated long be-
fore making the dangerous venture.
At last / concluded my fate was as
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 go through. In
the course of twenty or thirty feet /
again got my head above water, and
took q long breathing spell. Again
the archWay above seemed to enlarge,
and the bed Of the stream became more
even. I sped along comparatively rap
idly, keeping my hands outstretched to
prevent my running against the Jagged