Morning journal and courier., 1882-03-24
North She field Hall.

The Mechanics COUfSe-COncludInSs Lec-
 ture by Rev. NIT. Hovey, of Fair Haven
 The Wonders of the Mn h Cave |
 Latest Discoveries and Revelations
 Beautiful Series of Views.
 Rev. MT. Hovey, of Fair Haven, delivered the last of the regular lectures in the Me- chanics' course at North Sheffield Hall last evening, subject ''The Mammoth Cave" Before introducing the speaker Prof. Brush announced that 8 lecture which had been omitted in the regular course, that by Prof.
 Verrill on 'Fish CuIture would be given next Tuesday evening. There was 8 very large audience present last evening, compris- ing many notable residents. The lecture was very interesting. The speaker began with an introduction concerning the size, shape, structure and peculiarities of caverns in gen. eral, spoke of lava caves, ice caves, marine caves, etc, but claimed that the largest caves in the world were those found in the vast homogeneous masses of limestone in the Mis- sissippi valley, where according to Prof. N
 s. Smaller, State geologlst of Kentucky, there are 100, 900 miles of open caverns. The cav ernous limestone of Kentucky covers 5000 square miles. Edmonson county, Ky, in which Mammoth Cave is located has more than 800 known caverns. He spoke of various cavern hoaxes but Mammoth Cave is grand reality and unsurpassed. He next gave history of saltpetre mining i'll Kentucky, which led the early pioneers to explore caves to obtain the materials for gunpowder. These mines were | the main source Of supply to the government | in the war of 1912. In 8 single year $2O, 1000 | worth of wood ashes were consumed in the | manufacture of saltpetre, the crystal being ! carried on OK carts and on pack mules over | mountains and through forests to Philadel- l phia. Among the first objects that visitor l sees on entering Mammoth Cave are the relics ! of these saltpetre works which are very ex- 1 tensive The speaker gave an account of | how to get to Mammoth Cave and described the Cave Hotel as singular evolution from 8 log cabin germ to a first class resort. The l speaker then referred to his maps, of which l there were three-one map of Wyandotte 1 Cave of Indiana, simply used compari- son; another showing the formation of pits l and domes in caves The third a | new map of Mammoth Cave made from a recent survey by MT. Francis Klett, the ! pISSShG LududSOI) HL(l GuG Ouly COtE6Cb udp
 ever made. It was presented last night for
 the first time before popular audience. The
 map as it stands contains only the surveyed portions, large areas of the caverns not being
 included because not surveyed. The areal l diameter of the mammoth cave is ten miles
 The combined length of all the avenues is 15O
 miles. The audience was taken by the diff l
 scribed. Among the points mentioned were I the rotunda and Got hic avenue, Star Cham
 Der and the various pits and domes, concerning
 which the speaker gave a number of thrilling
 stories of hairbreadth escapes. The River
 Hall was next described, in which all the ! waters of the cavern are collected The
 largest river is Echo river, which is three
 in width and 40 feet deep, and is famous for it's musical reverberations and it's eyeless fish The speaker went rapidly over the re-
 mainder of the cavern, the regions beyond
 the river, speaking of Siliman's avenue and
 Cleveland's cabinet with it's wealth of crystal rosettes, extending from one to two miles, perfect palace of crystals and having thus
 conducted his audience to the end of the
 cave, and consumed an hour with his lecture,
 be- after a brief intermission, exhibited a
 very beautiful series of magic lantern views, the first of the kind ever attempted with re-
 gard to Mammoth Cave. These slides
 were prepared partly from photographs taken by Charles Waldaoh, of Cincinnati by
 magnetism light and partly from sketches
 made on the spot in 1878 by J. Barton Smith,
 of New Haven The slides were prepared by Mr. J. M. Blake of this city. The speaker threw upon the screen picture of Old Mat,
 the colored man, with his basket, and staff,
 and lamp, who has served as guide for AZ
 years in Mammoth Cave. Next came pie
 ture of the entrance to the cavern; then a picture of the altar and a mar
 riage scene in Gothic avenue picture
 of the bottomless pit and two pictures of the
 Egyptian Temple, one of the river Styx, one
 of Echo river, the Last Rose of Summer, and
 of an extraordinary web of Assures known as
 "The Corkscrew." The exhibition was ac
 companied with the narration of various in
 cidents connected with the locality, and fin
 ally the entrance was redisplayed. The
 speaker was enthusiastically applauded
 Many of the s'college professors and theil
 ladies were among the audience The speake,
 used no notes, speaking extemporaneously
 and the lecture and views formed one of tht finest attractions of the course.