Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1892-01-07
A BATTLE WITH BATS.
A Hunters Experiences In a co..
RoCkcastie River. KaptrcL.

un.ers Experiences In q Cave Along
- Nockcastie River, Kentucky.
Eight miles east Of Mt. Vernon. XIV.
near Rockcastle River, is famous groi,n
OF wild, rocky, pine-covered hills. To-
caliy known as Round Stone Knobs. A
couple OF days ago DR.. J. J. Kite q
prominent young dentist, with dog
ana gun into that locality To
shoot quail, and for time he had ey
celient sport. About noon, however
thunder storm came up and he en-,
tered deep. rocky gorge with the hone
OF nndlng shelter from the menacing
elements. Seeing an aperture in the
Glib on his left, he entered it. and was
surprised to find himself in LARGE
winding gallery with steep and craeey
walls ON either side, and with a roos
that rapidly assembled to considerable
he1ght. About twenty-five feet from
the entrance was an object which ar
Tested MS attention. 1t was gigantic
powder, oblong in shape and weighing
nunareds OF tons, lying in an oblique
position on high, jutting ledge, with'its
huge crest upreared awfully into a pap
IN the cavern's roof.
1t looked as though slight shock or
the touch of a meddlesome hand might
olsplace 1t and cause it to come crashing
down. Indeed, it was one of those
1rlght1ul death-traps Of nature, grim and
sinister, sometimes found in subter.
ranean passages or upon jagged preci-
pices.
1t is we'll known that DR.. Kite is of an
adventurous disposition, also that he is
a naturalist and geologist of no small re-
pute. The novelty and excitement felt
In penetrating the unex plored so fasci-
mating to daring spirits, allured and
emboldened him. Believing that he
should make some interesting dscov-
cries, he advanced resoiutely into the
cavern. AS he did so his faithful dog
suddenly curled it's tail between it's legs
ana made speedy exit. At the same
instant the Doctor saw two fierv ewes
glanclng from dark corner. Hastily
raising his gun, he took deliberate aim
and let go both barrels simultaneously.
He never knew what the animal was or
what became of it, for the internal din
that beloved and rebellowed through
the cavern was followed by an awful
crash, suftocatlng columns of dust and
dense darkness, and he was thrown
violently forward and al most buried be-
meath masses of falling sand.
He scrambled to his feet again, bleed
ing and gasping for breath. Terror
struck and appalled,, he realized that
the huge bowlder above had been pre-
clpitated into the passage, completely
blocking the corridor and shutting him,
like the doors of ponderous tomb, for
ever from the light. He saw no way of
escape. A Plutonian darkness envel-
oped him. Moreover, vast tribe of
bats, disturbed by the defamation of his
gun and the shifting sound, began to
swarm along the passage, numbers of
them alighting on his person. They
were of remarkable size and fierceness,
and seemed disposed to attack him. So
vicious did they become that he was
forced to fight them oft by swift move
! ments of his hands. They swept for
ward in enormous fiocks, as to escape,
and that quarter of the cavern was
quickly alive with them. Stunned and
only partly aroused from their stupor,
thousands precipitated themselves
against the iutting rocks and fell upon
the floor dead or Tapping awkwardly
about in their wounded agony. They
swarmed on the Doctors back and neck
like huge bees. They dashed against
his face and chung to his clothes, his
| hair and his beard, and their whirring
wings, bellows-like, whirled the dry
| dust of centuries about in clouds, griev-
ousIy irritating the hunters already ex-
hausted lungs.
Threatened with suffocation, he in
creased the activity of his NOV eme nts.
He struck savagely, and hurled hum
dreds of the squeaking harpies upon the
earth and trampled them under his feet.
The cavern's rocky bottom became SO
slippery with the blood and scattered
entrails of mangled bats that he could
scarcely keep his footing. That he
should preserve his equani nifty under
such torture is wonderful, but that he
did is manifest from what now trans
PRED.
Shaking off his fierce tormentors for a
| moment, he pulled off his coat, and,
pouring over it the combustible contents
of whisky bottle which he carried IN
his hip-pocket, he ignited it with a
match, and as it blazed up he began to
| whirl it. circle of kissing fame and
nnnpent smoke, about his head. The
effect was magical The bats, unable
to bear the light and the fumes, spread
| their wings and began precipitate
fight to other parts of the cave.
Surrounded by panic-strlcken birds,
even under the spectral light Of the
torch. Kite presented the appearance
of something inhuman, ghoullsh, de-
moniacal. Issuing from the pockets OF
his burning coat could be heard the
sound of bursting shells, which mingled
strangely with his unearthly cries. zen
ing and rushing from side to side of the
cavern, his hair tumbled over his fore
head in tangled masses, and his face
distorted with fury and despair, ne
whisked the fiery brand aoou.' Give sin
until the vast army of horrid creatures
had been driven back into further re-
casses of the underground chamber.
Nearly exhausted his clothes les and hsa. body y
consider the possibility OF escape from
his prison house. If any avenue OF e :s,
cane over the stupendous bowlder still
existed, which was uncertain, it would
have been madness to attempt to scale nn
tbarefore abandoned such hopeless
idea and sought to find some va!nsE-
able point at the side of the seemingly
impossible stone barrier, h;oh
By the light of sickly blaze when "a