Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-10-31
Another Vacation in North New York
BY NJ V. b. KNOX, PHI. d.

passeo, Tue new cave was visited and this
time found, and of the visit to it will
now write. From Schroon Lake we wen
toward Ticouderoga across Long Pond, g
most interesting sheet of deep, cleal
water several miles long, but of narrow
width and with bold, rocky shores. They
report it to be full of nice pickerel, but we
had no time to fish for them The bridge
across it floats on the surface, the waite,
running in fast rs a team goes across it.
At Puts Creek VIC turned south toward
Puts Ponds going four miles up among
the hills to the charcoal kilns. On the
way we met some coal trains loaded, on
heir way to Penlields iron furnaces, the
drivers reminding me of tho way history
tells that the coliers at Kingswood looked
to whom Whitfield and the Wesleys
preached, for the dust on their faces caused
them TO look like negroes. At the kilns
Mr.. johnson, the foreman, allowed us to
put our horse in his barn and sent his ten.
vear-o,d boy to show us the cave. The
boy took a lantern, as the wind, they said,
would blow out the candles we had brought
with us.
Half mile into the woods brought us
to Lost Pond, IAN exquisite little lakelet in
he bosom of deep woods. Near this the
10Y soon found the inlet 10 the cave. His
log had already plunged into its darkness
md was loudly barking at what we later
earned were hcdgehogs. Donning our
,verals and other cave clothes, we follow.
d the nimble boy, who had already lighted
he lamp and was awaiting US distance
nto the cave. He was hardly larger than
he hedgehogs that peop!ed the cave and
% slid into it through the narrow opening
very easily, but when two hundred and
en- pound corporosity attempted to follow
was not so easily done. The little
fellow laughed, inside the cave. while q
zig fellow laughed outside who was vet to
~ the same entrance, but then he had
'een through Andersonville prison and so
,ould not clog the entrance like the one
II whom he laughed. Success finally
rowned my efforts and once in there was
40 lack of room. A broi passage opened
soon, through which came a stiff cool
breeze. Hedgehog quills and verdure
covered the bottom. The rock was gran
uIated limestone, white, coarse. with
decks of pumbago. The height of the
vail overhead was for long distance
'nough to enable us to stand upright, but
grew lower the deeper we went into the
,ave. Small chambers went off from the
main passage now and then; but mostly
90 small to follow, until about twenty
Yards from the entrance. when one was so
large that we entered it and followed it
some distance. 1t grew narrower and
lower until too small to penetrate further.
In this beyond us the dog was furiously
barking aud the boy in vain tried to call
am away when suddenly he came back
with his nose stuck full of hedgehogs'
quilts. His suferings prompted us to
seize him, two holding him while the
other tried to pull them out, but it was in
vain with our bare fingers, so we let him
go and he scud for home as fast as he
could run. Returning to the main passage
we went deeper still into the cave, until at
the distance of fifty yards or more it
became so narrow that further progress
was impossible. Still cool wind met us
and we knew there must be an outlet
On the roof above US water
stood in great drops condensed from the
rock. l expected to find some bats but
was wholly disappointed. After examin.
ing several side galleries, that finally
ended so small that only the hedgebogs,
Of which the cave was great burrow,
could enter. we came again to daylight.
Inquiries Of the boy led to a notion that
Lost Pond outlet made the cave. So
going to the pond we found that true
enough the water from the pond ran
few feet in sight, then plunged out of
sight into crevice in the solid rock and
that our cave was an old watercourse of
the brook in earlier ages. We decided to
follow the general direction, as we could
guess it, OF the brook under ground-the
boy knew that somewhere else near was
another hole or two. Three or four
hundred yards from the entrance of the
cave we found, ON some searching, an
opening into which we could go that must
be the other end OF the cave. into which
the winds went that we felt in the cave.
Below this, in the slo9e of land, found
where the old watercourse that made the
cave we entered again ran under the solid
rock. After some distance another surface
outlet occurred and this time the brot
from the pond came in sight, ran few
yards on the surface and again was lost
under ground. We went in twenty or
thirty yards up the course of the brook on
hands and knees through the water and
powders. but soon the roof of rock shut
down so low that soon the small boy could
90 no further. Still further down were
one or two moro openings and then the
brook, like huge spring, bubbled through
the stones on the hillsides and gently
away to a great beaver mead
ow below. The final exit of the brook
was full quarter of milo from the
pond and all that way, with exception of
its coming in sight few feet two or three
times, it runs entirely under the rock.
No doubt but that other caves of some
beauty and proportions besides the one we
entered are there.
Caves are of so rare occurrence in these
north regions where there are so few and
80 thin layers of limestone that this one
has some local interest. 1t is we'll known
10 all the people of that region and is
to attract the notice of summer
tourists. Puts Ponds also furnish excel.
+ At Nd L.. ha.