The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-08-16
THE BEAUTIES in CAVES
THREE REGIONS IN WHICH WON
DERFUL CAvERNs ABOUND HERE.
Many I'm America Are Still Unex-
plOred, and the largest Are Not
the Most Interesting.

Cyrus c. Adams. in New York Sun.
We have the largest known ave in the
world. and also one the beauty of whose
formations is believed TO be unsurpassed,
but in one respect none of our caves is
so interesting as quite a number of the
European caverns. Our caves have con-
tributed very little to our knowledge OF
prehistoric man, though a great deal has
been learned about him by the study of
his remains found in the caves of Europe.
1t is well known that there are three sue
ceeding epochs in the early life of man.
when his habitations, workshops and
many specimens of his handiwork are TO
be found chiefly in caverns or under rock
shelters: but our caves seem to have been
little used by the aborisines as dwelling
places, and some psychologists believe
that when the ancestors of our Indians
came to this continent they had already
learned the art of building more conven-
lent shelters than caverns afford. In a
cold, wet corner of Luray Cave, the other
day, / saw all that is visible of the hu-
man skeleton which Is supposed to be that
of a prehistoric man. One reason for
thinking so is because most of it is held
tightly in the grip of the floor, which in
dicates that the remains are of great age.
All visitors to our largest caves remark
the wonderfully pure air that is found
even in their deepest recesses. This is
chiefly due to the fact that they are al
most entirely devoid of ~decomposing ami
NAL and vegetable matter. No air so pure
can be found anywhere in the world ex-
cept on bare mountain submits or in the
polar ice regions or lifeless sane deserts.
The ruins may still be seen of two of
the twelve cottages hat were reared,
years ago, in the depths of Mammoth
Cave, and occupied by a number of con-
sumptive patients, who were sent TO live
in them in the hope that the pure air
would be beneficial. They forgot that they
needed sun as well as air. and the expert,
ment was an utter failure. They could
not live in the cave any more than the
plants and shrubs which they set out
around their dark homes, hoping that with
the utmost care they might make them
thrive.
Our three great centers of limestone
caves, in the order of their importance,
ara found in Kentucky, Indiana and Vir-
ginia- Perhaps not more than one in ten
of them is visited by tourists. and hardly
a 1arger PROPORTION mo a,s nak ke 1eem tho cs%es y
seems to be bigness n not beauty hat
attracts the tourist.
LARGE BUT NOT BEAUTIFUL.
Most visitors flock to Mammoth Cave,
which is, to be sure, very wonderful in
it's immensely, though most of its long,
low, narrow passages and enormou rooms
are about as barren of the weird and fam
tastic beauty which calcite forms lend to
a few favored caves as the walls of a cell
lar. There are many hundreds of lime
stone caves in the world, but compare
lively few beautiful ones.
Great holes may be ~excavated by the
erosive power of water, but unless certain
conditions are exactly fulfilled there will
be non of the stone columns and draper
ies and other brilliant and imposing ef-
fects that are peculiar to stone scenery.
These objects are not found except under
certain conditions of ventilation, dryness
and water flow A torrent of water may
but it will never decorate a SUBJ
~terranean ravine. 1t is the very slow
dripping of water through the limestone
roof that makes stalactites and stalag-
mites grow.
1t is drops, trickling for ages, that de-
post, instead Of carry away their burden
of earthly matter and beautifully tint it
with shades of red and yellow, as they
carbonate Of iron. Adelsburg Cave. i'm
Austria, is conspicuously first among the
beautiful caves of Europe. Visitors TO our
Luray ave are piloted through the LADY,
rtnthine mazes for only two miles. while
the long route in Mammoth Cave covers
sixteen miles. and the total length of its
$50 miles. But Luray was formed under
conditions far more favorable to deco
rative effect, and. while Mammoth Cave
has its own unrivaled claims, it is not so
beautiful as Luray.
Professor Shaler has spoken of Diamond
Cave as the most beautiful cavern in
kentucky, and yet We seldom hear or IL.
The caves in E~dmondson county alone, of
which Mammoth Cave is the chief attrac-
ton. number five hundred, and seven
Butler, Logan. Christian and a part of
1rigg-are underlaid with caves. In other
words. eight thousand square miles of the
with caverns.
We have no Martel. as France has, to
inspire enthusiasm for cave exploration,
and scores of kentucky's caves will prob
ably not be explored for years to come.
Many that have been casually examined,
like Whits. Proctor and Grand Crystal
Caves, show very little that is note
worthy; but a good deal of interesting his
tory is connected with many others. HUI
man remains have been found in Man,
moth, Saunders. Haunted and Dry Caves.
Putnam found in Salt Cave we'll preserved
sandals and implements that are believed
to have belonged to prehistoric man.
Short ave has yielded that rara avis
among archaeological finds in our terri
tory, a well-preserved mummy which now
rests in the Museum of the American An
tiquarian Society. in Worcester. Doubt
less many of these caverns are worthy
of study. and will in time receive ii. The
same limestone formation extends down
into Tennessee. which accordingly has cav
ems of its own, and the formation also
crosses the Ohio river into Indiana. where.
in Crawford, Lawrence and Orange coun-
ties, is the second most important Ameri-
can cave region.
Visitors to the largest of these caves,
Wyandotte, in Crawford county. usually
start from the town of Leavenwortk. on
the Ohio river. There is nothing disap-
pointing about this second largest of our
caverns. though there are very few per-
sons who ever traverse all of its twenty
three miles of ramifying passages. 1t is
richer in, line dripStOne formation than
Mammoth Cave. and far from it's mouth
is a superb accumulation of gypsum crys-
tails almost equal to those of Mammoth
Cave. where the initiative forms in gyp-
sum of flowers, vines. ~shrubbery and so on
are among the chief wonders of our larg-
est cavern.
WYANDOTTE'S BEAUTIES.
Odd Fellows Hall, the largest room in
Wyandotte. is $40 feet long. 100 feet wide
and so feet high. Orange and Lawrence
counties are also very rich in caves. among
which are Campbelrs, a half mile long:
Dunnehew's. nearly two miles: Shiloh, or
Wet, about a mile; Dry, Grinstaff, Conel-
ly's. Hamer's, Donelson's. Blue Spring.
Buzzard's and others; and in Orange coun-
ty, particularly, is seen the phenomenon.
of disappearing rivers.
The most important of this type is the
Lost river. which is swallowed up in the
earth five times before il finally comes to
the surface to stay. Where il finally
energies. at Orangeville, at the bottom
of a wooded ~ravine, ii is forty feet wide.