The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1877-02-09
BoatOmlesS and Mysterious Hole
im the Ground.

Nearly fourteen miles on almost a
direct line southeast of this place there
is a singular and mysterious abysmal pit
in the ground that possesses features
strange ard marvellous. We have stood
often upon its brink and wondered
where it could end or what secrets its
bottom, if bottom it has, conceals in
the darkness forever from human view.
1t is situated on high bluff in a wild,
tiinty locality, tangled with vine, brier,
bramble, bushes, trees and slrubbery,
on the waters OF brakes creek, below
tile mouth OF Tramnel. The aperture
Is daJk gaping hole, cleft through the
stony erags as though the bluff had at
some time cracked and split and groaned
in agony, as though convulsion was GO
ing on far below. The opening is some
ten feet long and four feet wide at the
widest part, its rocky, yawning lips be-
ing something in tie shape OF a horse
collar, the apex, 50 to speak, pointing
westward. l5y some people in that re-
gion it is known as "sIIeli IIole,' while
others call it FIndian Pit - One re-
markab.e feature of the abyss is that
there issues from its deep depths, cease
less as tie rounds of the seasons, vol
ume of misty vapor, which, especially
on crisp. frosty mornings, can he seen
ascending above the tree tops and tloat-
ing off on the air, whitened with rays OF
the rising sun. Flint boulder-shaped
stones, and others, worn by the friction
OF time to perfect ro1ndness, are scatter
ed profuseIy about the place, as though
thrown high by some unknown upbeav-
al and showered back like rattling hail
stones Of all sizes and dimensions. In
the fall and winter this fog volume is
warmer than the cutting blasts that
sweep along the deep gorge through
which for ages the stream far below has
rolled onward to bend with deeper cur
rents in their flow to the ocean. In
summer the mist is cooler and nothing
like SO dense. The PIT widens from the
top in its downward course, and woe be
to any living thing once swallowed
through its dark mouth. Throw a
boulder or stone into it and not the
faintest echo ever reaches the ear as to
whittier it went. Some seasons since a
party of persons assembled at the pit,
determined to fathom its hidden bottom.
They were provided with a strong cord
over GOO feet long, to which was attach
ed stilliard weight. They dropped
the weight into the hole and payed out
the line Down, down and down went
the weight till not foot of cord was
left, while not sound came to tell the
tale of its subterranean passage. No
bottom was reached and the weight
was withdrawn damp and unsoiled as
though it touched nothing but mist and
darkness on its soundings. When the
bluff first gaped and opened wide that
speechless, toothless, but dark and mon-
strous mouth, no man knows oz can
know. 1t is an unwritten mystery
which no human eye can ever pene-
trate. Whether its final bottom be the
abode of Cyclopean fends, whether it
leads to rushing rivers away down be-
| low us, or whether it branches off to
| fiery veins of motion matter, coursing
earth's hot receeses we know not
Whatever it may be. and whatever its
causes, dark, deep, mysterious and pro.
found, it has been there for ages, breath
/ ing upward to the sun its misty volume
of incense, and is, as it will forever re
main to man, marvel and a secret
-Bowziag Green { hy.l Pt1aata9ra1oh