Morning journal and courier., 1891-04-09
COMMUNICATIONS.
A Western Trip in Winter.

To the Editor Of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 One who has sole regard for his own ease and comfort would hardly choose the months of February and March as the best season for pleasure trip. Yet have mo- ticed so many enjoyable compensations, while filling a series of lecture engage ments at the west and south, that will name a few of them No dust, no heat, no flies nor mosquitoes, no crowded excur sions; these are some of the negative ad vantages of the season. To one familiar with the Ohio valley when clad in summer green or autumnal crimson, while the dwindled rivers creep lazily along at low est ebb, it seems like visiting new region to find the same valley flooded by raging torrents many miles wide tumbling along between banks of yellow clay, or bright red ocha, above which the aged woods toss their bare arms to the rude March winds, revealing to view the grey rocks and jut- | ting crags that their summer foliage had | hidden.
 Cincinnati and Louisville were both partly inundated, the river being ffty-six
 
 | at the time of our arrival; but nobody | seemed excited at the state of affairs, as these floods arc annual occurrences, some times a little higher or lower than this, and all the old residents anticipate them. But it must be hard on the tenants of cot tages along the banks and in the bottom lands to have the yellow water come into their doors and windows and leave rich deposit of mud on retiring. That same l rich mud, however, is the best fertilizer for the submerged corn fields and market | gardens, whose increased productiveness
 will amply repay for whatever damage is done As our train pulled out from Lou l isville we looked out for the famous Falls
 of the Ohio; but they were temporarily
 obliterated by the flood, as was also the
 costly ship canal built around them. The
 river takes great bend below the falls,
 and there is present width was estimated
 at some twenty miles, expanding into
 what seemed more like broad lake than a
 river The bridges, of which there are
 several joining this city to tine opposite
 cities of Jeffersonville and New Albany on
 the Indiana side, are elegant, substantial
 structures, built so as to stand safely amid
 the widest floods and storms. Half hour
 ly trains carry passengers for a ive-cent
 fare by different routes and are well pa
 tronized. The cities occupy broad ter
 races, beyond which rise chains of cone
 shaped hills five or six hundred feet high,
 that are locally known as "Knobs," and
 whose appearance is extremely picturesque
 and striking. Public gardens and parks,
 as we'll as numerous handsome residences,
 adorn these heights, which are approached
 by macadamized roads. Immense quanti
 ties of grapes, peaches and strawberries
 are raised at the proper season, to such au extent that special fruit trains are run tc convey them to market The axe that has
 denuded so many of the noble hills of New
 York and New England has as yet spared
 most of the knobs" except in the vicini
 ty of the cities. My rambles led me fol miles amid forests where not a single tret
 had ever fallen only as blown down by the
 wind or prostrated by decay. But the , merciless saw-mill will soon devour these
 virgin forests and will be welcomed as {
 sign of progress by people who do not know the wealth of their heritage. 1ndi 7 ana now has lost ten per cent. of her orig , inal woodlands; and men are actually dig
 ging up and selling at profitable figures | the stumps of black walnut, butternu and white oak trees whose logs their fath , CTS piled into bon-fres! Kentucky has ar immense treasure in her yet unbroken for ests, the value of which will under exist . ing circumstances rise more rapidly thai s any bank investment. A farmer sixt, years old told me that in his boyhood h.
 had planted ten acres of black walnuts
 which he had afterwards cared for dow : to the present time, when they are larg
 enough for the saw-mill; and he is satis
 fed that no other crop could have been s '- profitable. The manager of the grea @ Mammoth Cave estate assured me that |, was not merely as @ matter of taste ths
 no trees were allowed to be felled aroun j. it, even for fre-wood, but that the owner a were convinced that property of this kin ], was yielding compound interest on its frs \ cost.
 n One object in view in this trip was to d
 some "caye-hunting. A week at the UT
 rivalled Mammoth Cave was well rewarde by numerous new discoveries. I also @, plored Wyandot, Marengo, Dixon and ha a dozen smaller grottees with @ zeal ths r. never tired. The endless diversity of sul d terranean scenery constantly stimulate 10 will be next unfolded. I shall not eve Is undertake, in this hurriedly written lette 1t any description of this part of my advel G. lures and experiences. Enough that ot .. underground journeys were delightful an 'o fruitful in results, and were marred t O. no mishaps. Let me say @ good wort he however, for the matchless grotto of NJ ce rengo, TOT the very reason that so fe seem to have heard of it even in Indian Af where it is located. It is easily reache,
 Marengo being a station on the Air-Lil
 railroad from Louisville to St. Louis, ar IT. the cavern being only half-mile from u m depot. It is owned by an octogenarif It. farmer, who is so economical as to nal te few improvements, and who has not spel
 a dollar in advertising. But no mo 'e- lovely grotto than this can be found ( 'w any continent, and its fame will yet be he widely known as possible. My photogr ,d pher was with me and did some faithf
 work But, after all the most glorio en scenes of the underground world cam ar, be reproduced by the camera any mo sy than described by the tongue or pc l.. Like Niagara and the Yosemite, they mu
 be seen in order to be appreciated. Al re- my testimony is that the caverns of t of Ohio valley are as we'll worth visiting