Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-05-01
FIFTEEN DAYS In A CAVE.
without Food or light, and Two
and n Half Miles From the En-
trance.
Chicago Tribune.

The 3oth ult., dispatch was sent
from this city briefly detailing The
miraculous rescue of two young Gin
cinnatians named Charles Cover aud
Chris Schmltzer from the cave under
Loo out Mountain, near this city.
Both gentlemen are rapidly recover
ing from the effects of their terrible
experience, and Mr. Cover is now
well enough to venture out of his
room. Mr.. Cover has kindly iarn-
isbed a history of their wauderings
in the bowels of the earth, which is
given i'll his own language rs fol
lows:
We entered the cave at 9 o'clock
the morning of April ! to satisfy
curiosity. When say I'VE, | mean
myself and Mr.. Chris Sehmitzer. We
had glass lantern and a bottle Of
lard oil. When he had advanced
about three and a half miles we came
to a crevice about foot wide and my
companion, who was carrying the
lantern, IN holding it over to examine
the extent of the curve accidently let
it fall. 1t went about fifty feet before
it struck water We were then in
total darkness, in a cave we had
never visited before. We knew that
to return we would be compelled to
pass pits of great and unknown depth,
that lay Immediately along out path
that there were many by-ways we
knew not of; that to st.-y was certain
death, and any effort TO return was
hazardous In this dilemma'w thought
of the bottle of oil, aud Immediately
set to work prepering wick by twist
ing a handkerchief and inserting il in
the bottle. Our minds vert filled
with anxiety. Both life and death
hung on a great uncertainty.
The match was suuch and applied
and a blaze flashed up. We could
not wait; our anxiety was to getout
before the oil was consumed. la our
hurry we took the wrong cours9, and,
after wandering around for several
hours, found ourselves at the place
we started from This, ofcourse, add
ed t. the horror Of the situation. Our
oil was nearly gone, and the bottle
was getti0g bot. We started again,
but had not proceeded far when the
bottle exploded. We were now al
most in despair, for we had only two
matches left and nothing TO burn. To
add to our miserieS, we were getting
thirsty, and knew of no place where
we could procure water except where
lost the lantern. We lay fat and
crawled along until we reached that
point. Tearing the lining from our
coats we made rope, and cutting
holes in the brim of my hat let it
down, thus drawing up enough water
to quench our thirst Finally the
string broke and the hat was lost.
That of my companion would not
hold water, and we determined to
make another effort to escape. We
knew the direction we had TO go, but
feared we might fall into one of the
by-ways that had never been visited.
We commenced the hazardous jour
ney by era Wing and feeling our way
along Attimes we would cast stones
in front of us to determine when we
were nearing pits. Sometimes they
would fall to great depths, and then
we knew the dangers OF advancing.
AT last Mr. Schmitzer fell several
feet, and lodged ON a
projecting shelf, He was considerably
bruised, and after this it
was very dflicult to get him to pro
coed We slept, perhaps, one half
the time we were in the cave, and
this ref eshed MS very much. We
had nothing with us to eat, and,
strange as it may seem, we did not
suffer much with hunger. Our anx-
ietv was probably too great for that
and all our time while awake was
spe II IN trying to get out. At last,
Muen we had about given up all hope,
and had LAID down to die, VIC heard
voices, and tried to make ourselves
heard. The party found us, and
when taken out we had been in the
cave over fifteen days.