The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1875-04-02
M i S G elIane us,
A STORY OF THE
MAMMOTH CAVE.
Concluded.

At what point in this flight downward
through space must death have ensued ?
A law Of physics declares that the whole
spaces passed over by falling body, start
ing from a state of rest, are proportional
to the squares of the times employed in
falling, while the spaces fallen through in
successive times increase as the odd num-
bers one, three, five seven, etc. Assuming
that. at the latitude of the Mammoth Cave,
his body would have fallen sixteen and
a-half feet in the first second, then, accord
ing to this law, the second second would
have found him torty-eight and a-quarter
feet lower in space, and the ninth second
would have seen him rushing down into
darkness more than one Thousand three
hundred feet from the point where his
body started to fall. But it is believed
that in falling immense distances human
life becomes extinct in mid-air At some
point then in that subterranean darkness
the body and soul of Constant Earle must
haveparted company, the one continuing on
in its ever-increasing velocity downward,
and the other sailing swiftly upward like
star through the darkness to its celestial
home. Assuredly, if ever q mortal could
properly and reasonably expect to secure
at death residence among the stars, that
blisstul fate was reserved for the author
who had struggled so manfully to please
God.
But his hour had not yet come. Down
ward and still downward he sped. Rocks,
enormous and broken, passed him in his
flight; caverns, dark and hidden in eter-
nal gloom, swept past him. He clear
ed the strata Of the Silurian group, he en-.
tered the region of the Cambrian group,
he flew past masses of gneiss, granite crys-
tallinc rocks. Merciful Heaven was ho
en- route for Pluto's realm AT length lie
paused, not with q terrific crash against
rocky bottom, not mutilated and torn
limb from limb, but gently subsiding up
on his feet upon a firm foundation, deeper
in the bowels fthe earth than any of his
race had ever penetrated before. He
shook from head to foot in terror; lie was
in total darkness, imprisoned in dungeon
and gloom, where heroism and fortitude
were impossibilities, were simply myths.
One heroism alone was left to him, q
Christians resolution to die patiently and
we'll. Thousands of feet beneath q cavern,
whose entrance was miles away upon the
surface of the earth, but what could he do
but pray and suffer and die? He soon
dropped to his knees and prayed earnestly
to God for grace to die patiently, calmly,
serenely, in that excessive, horrid dark
ness. Darkness pressed upon him in ago
ny, darkness ineXpressible. * = 81 -
The shock of the fall and the upward
pressure of the air had expanded it,
Wide open spread its wings and bore
him safely downward through the
gloom. He was saved by parachute.
The fabrics of the forefathers, and the
frames upon which they were spread, were
no contemplate friends in struggles with
mid-air. The ancestral umbrella had Open
ed and saved him in his descent. Gloria,
tiJi umbracuLum!
He extended the iron-pointed friend out
in the darkness. 1t encountered no OBJ
staole. He CROPPED about with it. He
cautiously moved forward, feeling for pit
falls. None rewarded his search. Some
sudden impulse moved him to reverse his
course. 1t was not within the range of
metaphysical science to explain that i'm
pulse. He turned and beheld q marvel, a
subterranean star, cleaning far away upon
the blackness # = s. Is s.
If this be hell l look upon,
Close shamed Elysium's gates, my shade shall
seek for none. BYRON.
With great minutcness the author pro-
ceeds to detail the progress and observa-
tions made by the astonished and terrified
explorer of the deep and mysterious re-
gions into which he had so suddenly de-
scended. Advancing slowly and cautious
ly towards the dim light that he saw in
the distance, the path he was treading
grew more luminous; he finally discovered
that he was passing through valley Of
quartz and gold. He was traversing u
subterranean mine, rich, rich in pure, beau
tiful gold. He arose in wild rapture, and
gazed about him; he saw for the first time,
pendants of pure gold hanging from the
low ceiling, as if they had melted in the
action of fire and frozen again ere they
fell. - 81 II Hank what low, dis
tant roll broke upon his car? He paused
in awe to listen. 1t came once more, that
subdued, distant, and yet solemn roll like
the surf breaking upon the ocean beach.
He became conscious, for the first time, OF
a gentle, tropical, soothing warmth
Again the heavy roll Of the sea
met his car, and then boom came sullen-
ly over the stiffness; then shock ensued
which Jared the arch above his head, and
he paused trembling at every joint. II s.
Brighter and brighter grew his path
81 = Where was he has
tening in blended awe and rapture
|' . Like the great sweep of q
cathedral's vaulted roof arose before hin
an arch Of surprising brilliancy, formed o
quartz rock, incrusted with fantastic or
naments and stalactites of pure gold. Arcl
after arch succeeded each other before him
SAT the beginning of the story of Constan
Earle's entrance into the cave, it is stated tina
he had mania for carrying an ancestral um
brella. and that he took it with him in the cave
Notwithstanding Stephens jocular assuranc
that there was neither rain nor sun tn guar
against in the great cavern.