Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1885-10-10
A BOTTOMLESS ABYSS.
West Virginia's Great Natural Curl
ostty-The Wonder of Tourists.

o,tty-The Wonder of Tourists.
There are many natural wonders IN
this out-of the.world region and yester-
day the monotony of camp life was
varied by visit to one of them, the
locality known far and wide throughout
the South Branch country as the Hell
Hole. This is an uncouth name, but to
visit the spot iustifies the title in the
mind of the beholder. This terrible
abyss is on the North Fork, west of Rite
nour, at the side Of little stream which
gurgles unsteady down the mountain
and is to the lower or left hand side OF
the road which leads through the Harmar
Hills. The chasm, circular in shape, is
about fifteen feet in diameter, almost
perpendicular and is believed by the in
habitants near by TO be bottomless. Its
situation is at the bottom of deep, rocky
gorge and the scenery is unusually wild.
Many attempts to sound this mysterious
well by lines, some ofthen one thousand
feet in length, have been made in days
past, but as yet without avail, and lighted
lanterns and torches lowered to a depth
of many hundred feet have revealed
naught but rough, irregular walls ofsolid
cock. Provided with stop watch, ]
dropped heavy fragment of rock over
the edge Of this yawning gulf, and the
faint sound which came back to my ear
was at the expiration of fourteen seconds.
From this, making due allowance for the
resistance of the air, the transmission of
sound and the impedinents to the stone
caused by the uneven sides, calculated
a depth of 3,152 feet 4 inches, presuming,
of course, that the last audible sound was
caused by the rock striking the bottom.
| The people. who have for many years
regarded this gigantic well with some
thing akin to awe, tell many stories of it
and Ofthe objects animate and inanimate,
/ including at least one human being,
which have been swallowed up in its
! Unsuitable NAV. A fine, white pine tree,
with a slender stem, straight as an arrow
and over one hundred feet high, stood
on the steep slope a few dozen yards
from the mysterious hole. Two of Isaac
HarmaI's sons concluded to venture up
and cut the tree for troughs. 1t fell with
the top up hill. and starting to slide, dis
appeared bodily into the He'll Hole and
was lost to view, the terror stricken
Young men who peered cautiously over
the edge being unable to see the slightest
trace of the tree except few bits Of
bark and branches clinging here and
there On thfiagged rocks.
But other and more serious accidents
have occurred at the He'll Hole. About
ten years ago partially blind peddler,
who was making his way south along the
north fork from Martinsburg to White
Sulphur Springs, disappeared suddenly
in this vicinity. A search was made for
him, and his trail finally struck and fol.
lowed up to the very brink of this fearful
pit. The suppos;tion is that in the dusk
of the evening the old man walked to
the mouth of the hole, all unconscious OF
danger, and stepped of, to fall to as yet
unknown depths.
There is also a legend current among
the good people of this portion of Grant
county that, away back in the early days
of the century, when the red man had
not long been gone from the North Fork
Valley, that young girl, disappointed
and heart broken st tie course of hel
lover. had made her way to the mouth
of He'll Hole and, depositing in a little
pile on fiat rock the few sim pie love
tokens received.in happier times from
her betrothe1, had leaped into the fear
full depths before her.
On another occasion a valuable horse
fell into the pit, and last winter a dog
while pursuing rabbit, took the direc
ton of he Hole and catching his prey
on the edge, lost his footing and both
animals were engulfed. Tourists have
dropped tons of rocks into the He'll Hole
but Its dark secrets are still unrevealeC
and probably will ever remain unknown
an object of mystery and wonder to thu
passing stranger and of terror to the in
habitants of the region in which it il
situated. Wheeling Register.