The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-01-08

occurred. The Ashesille and Spartan
burg Railroad was then being construct
ed on the other side of the range eight
or ten miles distant, and the wiseacres
attributed all the sounds and shocks that
were heard and felt to The frequent blasts
that were made in the rock beds along
the line. After one such shock, however,
it was discovered that one of the numer-
GUS peaks of the Bald mountain group
was rent in twain from summit to base,
and the unbelievers ;.silenced from
that day to this. An investigation of the
fissure caused by that shock showed that
it was several feet wide and hundreds of
yards long. A party of mountaineers,
having provided themselves with ropes
and candles, entered the cleft in the side
of the mountain, and after going short
distance found that it widened into a
great cavern. The appearance of the
walls proved beyond question that the
cavern was of very recent origin; frag-
ments of rocks hung loosely overhead |;
the floor was covered with debris, and
altogether the situation was SO threaten.
ing and uncertain, at best, that the ex-
ploration was abandoned we'll nigh at lis
outset. It has never been pressed any
further, to the writer's knowledge. The
impression made upon the minds of those
who entered the cave was that the "bot-
tom of the mountain had dropped out,
down to somewhere" leaving the peak
little more than rocky shell. On this
theory the phenomena that had been
observed for so many mouths before were
accounted for. The inside of the noun
tain had been crumbling and caviug in,
piecemeal, and the fall Of the masses in
the interior had caused the shocks and
rumbling sounds that had been felt and
heard for miles around. The theory may
or may not be the true one. 1t will hold
until better one is offered, at least, and
has strong support in some other recent
occurrences in the same neighborhood.
A few miles from Bald mountain, in
another part of the same range, is another
peak that has certainly caved in the way
The nature of the disturbances that
have occurred at this point is beyond
question. The mountain has caved and
crumbled until it is as hollow as a bee
hive, and very badly cracked bee hive
withal. Currents of warn air are drawn
into creyices between tho rocks on the
one side of the mountain, and pour out
on the other side, as chill as blast from
an ice house. The outgoing currents
creep along the ground and are distin-
guishable in the summer time at dis.
tance of half mile from the point of
exit. So it is said. A fishing rod can
be driven out of sight at many places. in
the crevices between the rocks under
foot. At one point q cross section of the
ridge has fallen bodily distance of per-
haps a hundred feet-leaving a gap
through the mountain like railroad
"cut," the side walls of which are nearly
perpendicular. Make two parallel cuts
across and through loaf of bakers
bread, and then hash down the middle
slice go formed and you will get fair
idea of what has occurred here. The
loaf of bread is a mountain, however,
and the slice is probably an hundred
yards long. at another point such a
slice has fallen without exposing from
above the gap which it has left. There
is slight crevice at the surface, indeed,
but you would step across that without
suspecting what was under you. The
crevice gradually widens as you descend
the mountains, and you can go into it at
one or two places. Looking upward it
appeared as broken thread of light
extending along the roof of a cave of
unknown proportions. The rock walls
of the cave are broken and cracked in
every direction, and the floor is covered
with fragments that have fallen FROM
above, and that keep falling. The floor
also drops away sometimes. You cannot
go very far along the dark and dangerous
road your feet are in, even if you wish
to do so, because it ends suddenly in an
abyss of which you can neither see the
roof, the sides, nor the bottom. Drop a
stone over the verge-you will never
hear it strike! There is no known bot
tom there; it, too, has dropped down to
somewhere.
There are other evidences of Unrest
and uncertainty in the hearts of those
everlasting hills. Tn one place q great
body of water gushed out Of the side of
a mountain, breaking its way through
the soil and carrying everything before
it. The guides will show you "whirl..
pools" that receive mountain streams and
swallow them. Throw stick into the
little mealstrom and it will spin around
q few moments and then disappear in
the vortex.
These things are all peculiar and in.
teresting and unexplained. IF the same
features and facts and phenomena were
to be observed in the Hartz; mountains
there would be legends about them, and
Americans would cross the ocean to see
them and write books about them. If
they were located in the White noun 4
tains, or the Catskills, or the Adirondacks,
there would be hotels and railroads all
through the region to accommodate the
crowds of visitors every summer AS it
is, it is all in the Land of the Sky"
and might as we'll be in the sky itself, so
far as our people are concerned.
Girls in Odd Stockings.
uco.1,t ,tooI,;noe9 Voc thav,re all