Morning journal and courier., 1885-08-19

xp1ored, but doubtless a good many miles remain still unrevealed to the eye of man, and will always continue terra incognita. There are two hundred and twenty three av- enues averaging about seven yards in width and seven in height"
 "I believe you refuse to allow anyone to enter the cave with any sort of surveying in strument?"
 "That is one of the rules, but think you can see the propriety of some such require ment. We are always ready to make excep- tions in the interest of scientific investiga- tion. When the American association vis- tied the cave after the Cincinnati meeting no restraints were put upon them except such as they themselves heartily approved of. We merely seek to guard our property rights" "You don't claim much for the cave so far as beauty is concerned?''
 "Oh no, not relatively. The finest DOT tions of the cave, however, are those where 1t IS too damp to escort the general public" " "What does the general public see?' 'Usually there are three routes to choose from; the Long, which comprehends eighteen miles of journeying on foot; the Short, which measures about eight miles, and the Combination, measuring ten or whereabouts. The Long route is not accessible now owing to the high water of Echo river"
 A party of eight of us concluded to take the Combination route and started shortly after tea, preceded by guide, who carried a Ouuu16 Ol uI0WOTAS uuucr Ouc dEiu duu q string of dingy smoking lanterns in the oth- CT. In wild ravine about thousand feet below the hotel we found the cave entrance, from which a furious blast of cold air was issuing. Then we all called halt and want ed to go back for ulsters. But the guide Henry he told us to call him-was positive in bis assurances that we would find it just comfortable inside. Said he:
 ''There is always regular gale of wind blowing out of the mouth, and that makes it seem cooler than it is. When you get in a few rods you will not suffer-
 And we found it as he had prophesied Although the temperature is really higher near the opening, you find it much chillier than you do when once you get inside. The current of out-rushiDg air goes long ways before it is assimilated by the outer atmos- phere. The temperature is fifty-three or if ty-four degrees in the cave the year around. In winter the current is of course inwards instead of outwards. It is really dangerous to emerge from the cave and move quickly to the right or left hand in such hot weather IS the present. Ever since we came out 1t has seemed as if I am breathing air from a furnace heated seven times. Ladies ire quently faint by reason of taking the change too abruptly.
 We surrendered our tickets for which we had paid three dollars apiece, took long look at the tulip trees, naples and butter nuts about the entrance, and then descended the slippery decline that led into the long vestibu1e of the cave. There was no formal ity observed, no donning of special suits of clothes red tape of any sort. Cave dust is 50 damp that it is powerless to soil ones gar ments or even affect the backing upon his shoes.
 few hundred feet brought us to huge iron gate, which was the real "front door" of the cave.
 Henry unlocked this and we began our leisurely tramp of somewhat over five hours. For the most part the walking easy. There were the conventional experiences, the lighting of chemical torches, the climbing of ladders, the creeping of precipices, the test ing of the darkness by extinguishing all our lamps for season, the discharging of fire works, the guessing of distances, the peering up into fathomless domes and down into fathomlsss pits, the excruciating agony of Corkscrew, the variegated anguish of Fat Mans Misery, Stc:, &c. We examined the famous saltpetre vats, still partly full of ni- trous earth with the pipes leading to and from them in tolerable preservation, although used as long ago as 1S12.
 The prints of the oxen's hoofs were still in the hard earth and corn-cobs were scattered about the semi-decayed managers.
 The different features of the long tramp underground were too numerous for individ- ual mention. Of course they all have fanci- full names, but as in the case of caves gene rally, you have to strain your imagination to the point of rupture to discover much resem- blance of the object to its original. Among the names I remember the Narrows, the Ro- tunda, Audubon's avenue, the Bath Rooms, the Kentucky cliffs, the Methodist church where services have been held for miners in the past the Giants Coffin, a mammoth nat ural sarcophagus rivalling some of the famed monoliths of Baalbec in size, the Grand Arch profile shadows of George Washington Cor nI7Gyo of li1fr cording to the nationality of the tourist) and other worthies, silhouettes of animals on the ceiling produced by fantastic incrustations of gypsum stained by black oxide of manga nese on the creamy limestone roof, Chief City, Haunted Chamber, Pensico avenue, Mammoth Dome, Gorin's Dome, &c., &c.
 I was amazed at the number of monuments which have been erected by tourists along the main avenues
 I suppose every State in the Union is thus commemorated and nearly every large city, besides secret societies, Y. M. c. As and various ~ organizations. These monuments are made of stones piled often ten or fifteen feet high. Of course every Ohio man thinks he must leave his card on the Ohio pyramid, the New York man on the New York pile, Sc. In this way there are thousands and tens of thousands of visiting cards to be read if the visitor is of an inquisitive turn of mind.
 Then many other tourists have sought to win cheap immortality by smoking their initials or their names in full together with some choice sentiment upon the various vau1ted roofs, after the manner of the irre- pressible autograph fend. Thus one does not lack reading matter while doing the cave. We paused 8 moment in the Gothic chap el, where is seen the best display of natural pillars, consisting of stalactites and stalag- mites uniting by their apexes. Here several weddings have been celebrated on the part of too-too susceptible young couples, and here in this natural theater Edwin Booth once rendered selections from Hamlet.
 The mummy stories which are usually foisted upon visitors hardly listened to and have not investigated them.
 Henry was full of stereotyped jokes as the average guide, but I will not quote from his repertoire. His ventriloquial feats were not at all bad, however, especially in the Star chamber. Our little company sat down on bench, the lamps were all extinguished, and Henry retired to give us some spectacu- lar effects. After few moments of Stygian darkness, the effect of which was sufficiently appalling, stars began to appear on the lofty dome, and we were given scenic illusion representing the dawn of day which any the atrical manager might well envy. As Henry approached we enjoyed concert of animal cries and calls as heralding the dawn, which would have narrowed us up not little had we not known that there was to be pro- gramme enacted for our benefit.
 was good deal interested in the roofess remains of two stone cottages which stood to commemorate the folly of company of if teen consumptives, who in the year 1S4s were deluded into believing that the highly oxygenated air of the cave would cure them.
 There were twelve buildings in all, two of stone and ten of wood. The frame struc- lures were removed many years ago. The experiment failed, not for any lack of salu- brious quality in the air, but because the hu- man body requires sunshine. The ar IS re- markedly pure and perceptibly exhilaratlng, as could discover in it's effects upon the sn;r;ts of onr marty. Even now I should not | he conscious of having walked ten rods this auaninn if [ consulted my own feeling of