The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1877-04-28

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the route of the Mississippi, and stranger
than the works Of primeva man, consist
ing of mounds, canals and fortified strong
holds, are cavernous depths, within which
rivers flow from the mountains TO the great
drain of the continent. Fourteen miles
southeast Of Bowling Green, Ky, is a
cavern more extraordinary and wonderful
than the Mammoth Cave. Not far away;
on stone at the entrance of the latter,
the wonder of a country bumpkih Is in
scribed in words once quoted in the Senate
Of the United States.
The Mammoth cave! what a spot!
In summer cold, and winter hot
Ie powers above Great God wonder
Andrew jackson hill and thunder.
The entrance to the more mysterious pit
is on the front of perpendicular hight,
made almost inaccessible by vines, brambles
and densey growing forest trees. Tram
mel's enters brakes Creek just above the
strange aperture to unknown depths and
impenetrable darkness below This ady-
tum is ten feet long and four wide, and the
chasm seems to yawn and its great mouth
is horrible to contemplate.
Rude people in the vicinity call it "HelPs
Mole, or the "Indians Pit" From the
measureless abyss there issues, ceaseless as
the lapse of hours, days and years, a vol
ume of mist On cold, clear, frosty morn
ings it rises in spiral columns far above
the tree tops, and whitened as it ascends
and cleaning in the sunlight, it floats away
and is lost in the clouds, At some un-
known period in the worlds history mother
earth breathed heavily, aud great boulders,
worn round and smooth as if ground by
friction when upheld by currents of air,
and falling back again and again, lifted up
and rubbed by other stones, cover the hill
side and have rolled from the cavern's
mouth into the valley below. People
dwelling near by tell that in fall and win
ter the heavy stentOrious breathings from
the cavern are much warmer thau sharp
blasts sweeping the deep gorge, while in
summer the misty vapor from within is
cooler than the exterior atmosphere. This
tathomless pit grows wider in its down
ward course, and nothing living or mani
mate that has entered ever found exit.
Not the faintest echo was ever heard when
great stones have been rolled into the aw-
iul depth cg this desceasus Auerni. If
such massive boulders had encountered any
object within miles Of the entrance the
sound produced would have been surely
borne to listeners above by the strong
steady air current.
The impression fixed from childhood to
age, that the solid earth must be forever
immovable beneath our feet as surely and
as immovable as the sun and stars and
blue vault above our heads, is rudely
shaken when one stands in the presence
of such demonstrate hollowness and emp
tiness as this, Very much the same sen,
sations are excited when standing at the
pits mouth as when an earthquake shakes
land and sea and makes men and women
shudder.
When, not long ago, it was sought to
ascertain the depths Of the chasm, a heavy
weight was attached to strong cord, the
lead went down, down, till the line of
plummet had measured the greatest posi-
BILE depth, but no sound came back to tell
of the end ofunutterable hollowness below
The weight, when withdrawn, was unsoiled,
and by the moisture on its surface showed
that in its descent and ascent it touched
nothing but mist and darkness.
The very hbllowness of life and its eva
nescent pleasures are almost illustrated in
physical facts discovered everywhere in
Kentucky aud Tennessee The river,
down in the depths of Mammoth Cave il
it find its way to the green fields and sun
shine, is never recognized above as the
stream noted for its oyeless fishes below
the earth's surface, and though the great
cavern has been explored twelve miles
from its entrance, those who have tray-
ersed its depths and labyrinths concur in
the assertion that there are other caves
beyond the remotest yet explored, and
grander and deeper than those that attract
the curious from all lands.
Near Union City, in Tennessee, and near
the southwestern confines of Kentucky, is
Reelioot Lake. Here the roof of nigh
ty cavern was shaken down by the earth
quake Of 18ll-l2. Lofty forest trees,
the tallest that tower above the lowlands,
disappeared with the land on which they
grew, and sea, broader and deeper than
that of Galilee, was outspread in crystal
clearness in the midst of the lowlands.
Ducks and geese Aock its surface and trout
abound in the modern lake that had never
reflected the suns face in its fathomless
depths till the bridge of soil and trees and
cane was broken down by the earthquakes
resounding footsteps,
Where the railway from Nashville to
Hickman, KY, on the Mississippi, crosses
that from Mobile to Cairo and Chicago
stands the town of Union City. 1t is ten
miles from this lake. 1t has been stated
that when heavy locomotives and heavily
laden trains come rushing by, hotels and
station houses quake, candlesticks are
shaken from mantles aud tables, and that
hollowness in which the forest disappeared
which bridged Reelfoot Lake, extends, it
is alleged, beneath the town and railway.
The water of this lake is not that of the
Mississippi. 1t is of crystal brightness
and clearncss, such as distinguishes that
river in the depths of Mammoth Cave.
while the great river above ground, bear
ing alluyium from northwestern noun
tains, is tawny in its yellowness and i'm
pervious to vision. When the earthquake
of lSll-l2 was most violent aud the night
was of extraordinary darkness, the Mis-
sissippi flowed backwards, and flatboats in
the vicinity of Hickman drifted backwards
forty miles towards Cairo. A mighty
volume Of the rivers aood-tide receded
into measureless caverns beneath the coun-
try's surface, and nowhere were the low
lands submerged,
There is Dead Sea- or murky water
hidden beneath the earth's surface in the
vicinity Of Cairo and New Madrid, and
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