St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-08-01
very unlike each other and each of them
looks anything but dangerous .'crook.n
WEST vlRGuNsA,s WILLIS.
a Country Where Summer is Cool
and Game Abundant.

/ a Country Where Summer is Cool
and Game Abundant.
A correspondent writing from a point in
Grant county, West Virginia. says: ''One of
the most pleasant of midsummer recreations
is trout fishing among these grand West Vir-
ginia mountains, and here, along the south
branch of the Potomac and the innumer-
able runs and creeks which empty into it,
the sport can be enjoyed to perfection So
wild and picturesque is the scenery, and
| so primitive the surroundings, that although
the traveller is but twenly-four hours from
Cumberland and thirty from Washington
city, he seems when once in the noun
tains to be quite on the extreme limit of
civilization.
Elevated, as this whole region is from
1,500 to $500 feet above the level of the
sea, the atmosphere, even i'll midsummer,
| is always cool and refreshing by day, while
between shutdown and sunrise the mer-
curry always sinks to 500 or 45o,
and blankets and hickory fires
are things not to be despised.
The present summer in this West Virginia
wilderness has been an exceptionally pleas
ant one. Frost, several times quite heavy,
has fallen almost every week. The current
issue of the local paper from ST. George.
forty miles northwest, notes fall of snow
in that paradise for fishermen and hunters
which covers more than one-half the surface
OF Tucker county, adjoining this.
There are many natural wonders in this
Out-Of-the-wOrld region, among them the
locality known far and wide throughout the
South Branch country as the He'll Hole.
This is an uncouth name, but visit to the
spot justifies the title in the mind of the Wis
itOr. This abyss is on the North Fork,
west of RitenOur, at the side of a little
stream which gurgleS unsteady down the
mountain, and is on the lower or left hand
side of the road which leads through the
Harmar hills. The chaSm is circular in
shape, and is about fifteen feet in diameter.
Its walls are almost perpendicular. The
natives of this region believe it
to be bOttomless. 1t is situated
at the bottom of q deep, rocky
gorge, and the scenery is unusually wild
Many attempts to sound this mysterious
we'll by lines, some of them 1000 feet in
length, have been without avail, and lighted
lanterns and torches lowered to depth of
hundreds of feet have revealed nothing but
rough, irregular walls of solid rock. A
heavy fragment of rock dropped over the
edge of this yawning gulf gave back last
faint sound at the expiration of fourteen
seconds. From this, after making due al
lowances, depth of 8, 152 feet is calcu-
lated, presuming, of course, that the last
audible sound was caused by the rock strik-
ing the bottom.
The people tell many stories of this well.
n line white pine tree, with slender trunk,
straight as an arrow, and over one hundred
feet high, stood on the steep slope few
dozen yards from the mysterious hole.
Two of Isaac Harmar'S sons concluded to
venture up and cut the tree for trOughs. 1t
fell with the top up hill, and then sliding
down disappeared bodily into Hell Hole,
and was lost to view, the terrOr-stricken
young men, who peered over the edge, being
unable to see the slightest trace OF the tree
except few bits of bark and branches
cllnging here and there to the jagged rocks
About ten years ago, a partially blind
peddler, who was making his way south,
along the North Fork, from Martinsburg to
Sulphur Springs, disappeared suddenly in
this vicinity. y search was made for him.
and his trail was finally found and followed
up to the very brink of this fearful pit. In
the dusk of the evening the old man had
walked to the mouth of the hole, all uRcon-
sclouS OF danger, and stepped off, to fall,
to as yet unknown depths.
On another occasion, a valuable horse
fell into the pit, and last winter, dog, while
pursuing a rabbit, took the direction of the
hole, and catching his prey on the edge lost
his footing and both animals were en-
quilted. Tourists have dropped tons of
rocks into He'll Hole but its secrets, proba-
bly,, will ever remain an object of mystery
and wonder to the passing stranger. and of
terror to the inhabitants of the rough region
i'll which it is situated.