West-Jersey pioneer., 1880-03-11
A PENNSYLVANIA CAVE.

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A wonderful cave has been discovered il
Pennsylvania, about three fourths of mile
to the left, toward Mercer of the old Frank
lin and Mercer road and about one mile and
quarter from the line of the Lake Shore
and Michigan Southern Railroad, Franklin
division, near the beautiful little hamlet OF
Waterloo, on tract of land owned by Mr..
Samuel r. Mckenzie, who lives on farm
in the vicinity.
On Christmas party of coal miners from
the mines at Stoneboro, who were having a
jolly time in the village, heard of this Won
derful place, and one of them who had
worked in some of the deepest mines in Eng
land laughed at the fears of the rustics and
proposed to go and explore it. They pro-
cured ropes and ladders, and, with few
tools and their miners lamps, set out for
the spot. Arriving on the ground two of
the miners, Jack Henderson and David
Davis, made one end of sucker rod line,
about five hundred feet long, fast about
their waists, leaving a space OF few feet
between them, and with their tools and
lamps and a supply of oil, started down the
incline. They proceeded in this way for
about two hundred feet in southerly di-
rection and outward at an angle of forty
five degrees, through crooked and very
rough passage, when they came to an OBJ
struction caused by the great number of
boulders which had been thrown in from
above, and were about to give up and re-
turn when they discovered that the gentle
current of air still pressed the flame of their
labor, and found that passage still con-
tinued, but raised abruptly for about sixteen
progress of the boulders thrown in from
above. Davis then returned and procured
ladder, and was accompanied by several
more of the party, who had now become
bolder With the assistance of the ladder,
they passed up over bank or wall of rock
some sixteen or eighteen feet high, and
found themselves in long, irregular-shaped
room or space, fifty feet wide at the widest
point and at places less than twenty-fv feet
wide, and upwards of $50 feet long, in which
hung and glistened countless stalagmitic
formations of every imaginable shape and
size. The roof and sides are limestone.
The most wonderful thing about the whole
matter was the finding of quantity of btu
minous coal on one ide of this large, irreg-
ular shaped room, and which evidently had
been conveyed there from some other place,
as no coal cropped out anywhere in the
cave. Digging up the debris at certain
spot coal ashes or burnt clay several inches
thick were found so solid that pick was
required to move the deposit. At the ex-
tremity of this room, and running away
from it at right angles, was found another
passage or fissure in the lime rock, down
the sides of which water trickled, and ex-
tending about fifty or sixty feet to the right
hand with gradual downward slope, when
they came to another stopping place. This
time it proved to be only dozen feet down.
ward, and the ladder soon helped them to
safe footing again. This proved to be an
other immense room, somewhat in the form
of huge letter s, very irregular, with one
end longer and higher than the other. Here
more coal was again found. All were i'm
pressed with the idea that this coal had not
been brought from the surface, but were of
the opinion that it had been brought there
from some place in the cave-perhaps further
down. So they proceeded to prosecute the
search and at length discovered another
passage or split in the rock, near the taper
end of the s, which led downward, much
like the opening at the surface, only much
larger. After pursuing this, which led
through small room, about forty yards,
they came suddenly to halt at the edge CT
a precipice, down which they clambered
for about twenty feet, and found themselves
in long, narrow tunnel, apparently without
end, either way. The bottom of this tunnel
or entry was covered with soft, sticky mud
almost like putty. The end to the left, it
was thought, would lead to the surface or
side of the hill, evidently not very far above
the level of the stream in the valley. The
other end led in the opposite direction and
across the line of and nearly below the first
room explored, underneath the body of the
mountain. A further investigation showed
that coal cropped out all along the line of
the canal or sides of the cavern, and after a
careful examination and measurement the
whole space appeared to have been filled
with coal, which had been removed, and the
perpendicular sides, which were gray with
age, left standing. Masses of the limestone
rock had fallen in several places, over which
the party struggled with difficulty. After
proceeding about one hundred yards from
the point where the coal drift was struck, a
measurement showed the vein of coal to be
eight feet three inches in thickness, and the
walls more clearly defined and regular.
At this point remains of masonry were
found, and the tunnel or drift divided and
ran in different directions. To the right
hand seemed the most desirable route and
it was explored first. This room or cham
ber is plentifully hung with stalagmite, of
the most beautiful description imaginable,
which have been formed by the steady drip
through the limestone for unknown ages
past Beautiful formations, as if cemented
into the walls, in many places appear. 1t
would be impossible to describe the various
turnings and directions in which the mine,
for mine it is, has been worked, but all of
which radiate in all directions for upwards
of two thousand feet in the body of the
mountain from the main entry, as the miners
style it, The roof of the entry is solid lime
stone, with here and there great dark riffs
overhead, which are probably the entrances
to other unexplored caverns as interesting
as those already examined and described.
The miners and the other three persons
agreed among themselves to keep the mat
ter secret, and did SO for short time, in
order that they might purchase the tract of
lorJ o,d rooc %bo IoroGt of %ba NO h1a