Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1884-10-14
MULHATTAN's VERY LATEST
OF.
The Mamm h Liar Discovers a
Subterranean Sea, Full Of Ice
bergs, Sharks and
Whales.

WOnuerfui caVe-regl0n OF Aentucky
surrounds l4eitChilcld oil all sides. II
isin the midst of the great cave belt,
which is, properly speaking, strip
OF country about 80 miles wide by
100 long that marks the line of some
gigantic upheaval of the earth, which
was the primary cause of the origin
of Kentucky's great natural wonders,
Leitchfield is the nearest point on
the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad TO
the Mammoth Cave, the "Grand
Crystal Avenue "Diamond," "IIun-
drcd Done," "llundrcd Roon,'
"Evan Rodgers" and numerous 9TH
er caves of less note,
New and wonderful discoveries Of
caves are constantly being made in
this vicinity. yet excite only passing
notice among the inhabitants, as
caves are so common with them; in
deed, they seem to think the crust of
the entire globe is as hollow us their
own little world around them. The
latest discovery, however, is of II
more exciting nature than anything
heretofore. In the Grand-avcaue
cave, discovered about two years a.o
on the Rodgers farm, there is hot
tpmless pit--at least a pit that until a
few days ago was considered bottom
less, and out of which poured forth a
mighty volume of cold, frost air that
would freeze beef solid before
morning if placed over the pit the
night previous. Mr.. Sisk, the butch
er Of the town, has been allowed TO
use ii as sort of refrigerator, and
had the advantage of being enabled
at all times to furnish,
EVEN IN THE HOTTEST WEATHER.
meats frozen solid. No one dared 10
descend into the bottomless pit lest the
cold should overpowcr him, and the
mystery has remained unsolved un-
til few days ago. A party of sci
entists decided TO at least make an at
tempt TO solve the mystery. A der
ric! was erected over the pit and two
coils of rope were wound around the
windlass; to this rope a cage made
of oaken planks was attached. A
system OF signals was also arranged
with WIRE and gong. The explor-
ing party consisted of eight, four OIL
" of which could be lowered at
time. They consisted ofCol. Jas. Al
exander, of Gallatin, Tenn. the Hon.
Hunter Wood, of llopkinsville, Ky;
Col. John. p. Barrett, of Hartford,
KY; and the writer of this article.
Those who were 10 follow, should the
first party get through all right, were
Maj. George M. Proctor, State Geolo-
gist; Dan. L. O'Sullivan, Esq, mana
ging editor of the Louisville Courier
Journal; b. +. Ridgely, ESQ.,, city ed
itor of the Louisville Commercial,
and j. f. Yeager, Esq, of the Leitch-
field Sunbeam. The cold was in
tense, but with an abundance of
heavy, warm clothing we decided
that we could certainly brave that
very peculiar and mysterious cold
fully as well as we could on the.
earth's surface. We Were well sup
piled with torches, matches, etc, as
we'll as basket Of provisions, u few
tools, such as picks, shovels, etc. We
entered the cage and gave the order
to lower away, amidst the cheers of
the great crowd who had come into
the cave to see us off on our journey
TO the interior of the earth.
Down, down we went-300, 500, 800
feet. Would we never reach bottom :
Would there be rope enough to reach ?
were questions that we anxiously en-
deavored to solve. They lowered us
very slowly, very cautiously. Twice
we signaled them to stop until we
could remove projecting rock from
the path of the cage or push the cage
around it. At 1,l20 feet-as we at
terward ascertained-we struck bot
tom. We signaled the joyful intelli-
Igence to those above, and had the
satisfaction of seeing the cage drawn
up for the remainder of our party,
The cold. was simply intense, and il
seemed an age ere they reached us
although not over fifteen minutes il
all. No time was to be lost. A grea
avenue opened before us--the bottom
: less pit we had descended was it
!. dome, through winch suDterraneal
! river had undoubtedly flowed, thu
avenue
g BEING ITS ANCIENT BED.
!, The avenue in many places is owe
e 100 feet high, with innumerabl
= = domes extending probably 1000 fee
}. toward the earth's surface.
: Beautiful pillars of alabaster, mil
e lions of stalactites and stalagmite'
y dazzle the eyes like so many dia
: monds, while the beautiful frost-wor
= formations assumed thousand fan
tastic and bewildering shapes to ou