Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-05-13
a STRANGE CAVE.
Ono Of the Wondas ST the Black Ellis
Dakota.
The Latest Explorer Says 1t Has Hundred,
Of Passages, the Mysteries Of Which Hav,
Never Been ExpIored-A wonderfp
siGht

In the northwest corner of Martin
valley. at the basin of the second range
of hills, in the bottom of a small ra
vine, is a hole about two feet wide and
four feet long. This is the entrance to
the wind cave. 1t is covered by 8
small log house built for the accommo.
dation of visitors and to protect the
entrance from the severe storms thai
visit that locality, says S. c. Odell in
Buffalo Gap News.
About the wind part of it. 1t may
be late in the afternoon when you ar
rive at the cave the wind may be ''go-
ing in" If it is going in it will con-
tlnue that way for several hours, and
then change and come out They call
it breathing.
Large, heavy pads are sewed over
the elbows and knees of our coats and
pants. The first one starts in feet first
and takes lantern; the rest follow one
by one, the last one with lantern and
ball of binder twine. The end of the
twine is fastened at the entrance and
unrolled as we go along, serving as a
guide to return by.
Flat on our backs or side, we shove
ourselves along down this narrow pas
sage covered with small stones, which
are anything but soft to crawl on.
When the first one reaches the divide
at his left the passage goes straight
down like a wall, entering a large
chamber at the top, but this time we
will take the one to our right.
Showing ourselves along little fur
ther we drop down about four feet iu-
TO small vestibule the entrance to
the chute" round tunnel about
twenty feet long and very steep, and il
requires no Showing" or "wiggling"
to get down, but with your hands and
feet braced out on all sides, and wish
ing you had several more pairs to hang
on with, you go down with more speed
than grace. From this chamber there
are many different passages, each lead
ing in a different direction, the gener-
al course being down. Some of them
you can enter on your hands and knees,
but in most cases one must lie down
aud crawl in. But we will take the
passage that leads directly down from
the chamber.
For the first few rods we crawl over
rocks and under them and then find
ourselves at the mouth of the well -
We pause here for a minute and throw
in rock, thump, thump, thump,
down, down, fainter and fainter, until
the sound is lost to the ear, but you
have not heard it strike the bottom.
How deep it is | have never heard and
have no curiosity to find out by ex-
perimenting.
A little more of this crawling and we
are at the middle of great crack
running up and down. This is called
the devils crack" The crack is
narrow and you are obliged to go in
sideways. The path is quite steep and
about twenty feet long.
On leaving this we turn short to our
right over a short ridge, and down an
other crack similar TO the devils
crack" At the end of this passage is
the brides chamber" Another long
passage and We are at the "postoffice.
At the brides chamber and post
Office we gather our first specimens
placing them together to be picked up
on our return. Before we leave we
register at the postoffice. There were
twenty-five names with ours, three of
them being ladies' names.
The passage from here on is more
open, and the walls and ceilings are
the grandest sight a person ever saw.
The walls are of light purple. thickly
studied with lime crystals and covered
with the most beautiful frostwork con-
ceivable. The sparkle of the frost
work, the deathlike stiffness, the feel
ing of awe which pervades the entire
surroundings, contribute to make a
scene most beautiful and weird.
As we go further in the crystal work
Is more consolidated and the frostwork
is much heavier-more coral shaped
until it runs into a heavy solid mass.
The courthouse is the next place Wis
tied. The ceiling of this room appears
to be 100 feet high or more, and the
floor is 100 feet across. The ceiling
and walls were covered with reddish
brown, lattice work formation, thickly
studded with the frostwork and literal
ly covered with crystals. The ceiling
is thickly covered with stalactites,
which look like large icicles. The
lady who visited it few weeks ago re-
marked that she could not see how
heaven could be more beautiful"
/ will say here that the cave from
the entrance down is very dry, and the
air is as pure as it is above ground.
The frostwork that l have spoken of
and also the other formations are of
lime, which has crystalized. From
the entrance to the brides chamber
there are no formations worthy of men
ton. The trip up into the stalactite
region is very interesting, but we will
leave that for some future time.