Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1891-08-29
A WONDERFUL CAVE.
A REMARKABLE CAVERN THAT RIVALS
THAT OF KENTUCKY.


ToiIsome Explorations Through Many
Miles of Corridors-Chamb Filled
with Beautiful and Curious Form
ations.
The San Francisco Examiner sent out
party to examine the great cave which
recent advices stated has been discovered
in Oregon.
The cave is situated in Josephine
county about 10 miles north of the Cali
fornia line and 40 miles from the coast.
The Examiner party were two days in
reaching the cave. Says its correspond
ent:
The main opening. from which the
creek flows, was the first entered. For
dozen feet only could you stand upright.
But, almost double, we pushed on, up to
our ankles in swiftly flowing water cold
as ice. Thirty feet from the mouth the
daylight was no longer visible, and there
the cavern was large again and the pas
cage was divided. A great bowlder,
caught midway between the walls, made
An upper and lower corridor. To the
left a great hole gaped, and on the right
the floor broke off abruptly in grinning
crack.
The left hand passage was the only one
that did not lead to long series of rooms,
and it was the largest opening of the
four. STOPPING under great rock that
jutted from the wall, the first of the
party found himself in an octagonal
chamber dozen feet high and as much
in diameter. 1t was two story room.
Half way to the ceiling comparatively
thin sheet of rock made ceiling for the
lower room and a floor for the upper.
There were bones in these rooms of deer
and smaller animals, and there were
other indications that it was or had been
the den of some flesh eating beast, prob
ably bear.
The last man in the party had in his
pocket ball of Irvine. One end of the
Irvine was fast to a rock at the mouth of
the cave, and as they walked forward the
line unwound.
AS we clambered through the narrow
passages, wonder struck at their fantas-
tic pendants and projections, that looked
even more grotesque in the light of the
flaming torches, we forgot that we were
cold and wet and tired. Every step
showed something stranger than had been
passed. A lime incrusted bowlder, COW
cred with fretwork delicate as hoar frost,
doomed up against the intense blackness
bevond-an enormous bears head; gist-
ening icicles were the teeth, and the
whole picture savage. Even while the
eye took in the features they changed,
aud instead of a fierce white bears head
there was only an irregular bowlder
again.
In the distance, where the light barely
reached, ugly black forms appeared.
More than once the men suddenly halted
when one of these black beasts moved,
for in the weird, smoky light they seemed
to move, though closer up they showed
as simply openings into other branches
OF the crevasse.
Several very tempting openings were
passed, but finally a particularly easy
looking door was reached, turning to the
right. 1t was not easy long. The roof
got closer to the floor, and the walls
came nearer and nearer together. We
stopped, then we got on our hands and
knees, then down fiat. So half a dozen
yards we had to wriggle and squirm
along snakewise, our clothes catching on
the brittle spikes and the fretted floor
tearing our knees. 1t was exhausting
work for while, but at last the passage
grew wider, and presently we were in a
room where we could stand upright. !.
That was a wonderful place. Along
either wall ran low, flat bench of rock.
In this bench were several depressions as
distinct and sharp as though cut with a
chisel. These depressions We're only an
inch or so deep, were perfectly rectangu-
lar and perfectly level. They were filled
90 the brim with water, and the white
rock glistened through it beautifully.
All around it was dry; no water drip
ping from above, none yelling up from
below. These squares of water reflected
like looking glasses when the torches
were held over them.
The mirror Room" this chamber was
named, and there the first photograph
was taken.
Many curious features were discovered
in the cave. A great chamber, named
the Dining Room because of bench, was
Of rock with a level top that occupied one
side of the room and looked more like
table than anything else, was the last of
the easy travelling. From there CHM
ney barely wide enough to squeeze
through went up at an angle of go de-
grees. A hundred yards of hard work
brought us to large rooms and broad pas
sages again. Rod after rod of stately col
umns, as regular and clear as freshly
sculptured marble pillars, divide the
rooms and increase the mystery of the
great maze, and overhead thousand
glistening drops of water, each the apex
of brilliant white spear head, reflect
the light of the glowing torches. Every
where on the walls masses of shining
lime, slowly deposited for ages, counter
feited the shapes of we'll known things.
Turning an abrupt corner of cavern
30 high that the torches did not light to
the roof of the magnificent dome, great
gaunt face sends chills down your back.
You know, of course, that the malevolent
eye is only shadow. the mouth fault
In the gigantic stalactite, and the hoary
heard simply another stalactite stained
by drop of iron that somehow has been
washed down into the limestone cracks.
But the face-the beard alone as long as
man-is uncanny, and as long as you
can see the visage you have an uncom-