Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1898-06-08
MAMMOTH CAVE.
Exhilarating Eject of It's Bracing, Cool
and Germless Air.

geologist of Kentucky, writes o.
1.-THE Mammoth Cave of Kentucky
for The Century. Mr.. Proctor says
The entrance to Mammoth cave is
reached by descending picturesque
pathway leading from the hotel
down the hillside over jutting moss
and fern covered limestone cliffs in
to beautiful glen extending from
the top of the hill down to Green
river, which is 1914 feet below the
mouth of the cave and about half a
mile distant. If the weather is
warm, as we near the entrance we
step into a bracing, cool, pure air,
yelling up from the cave and flow
ing down the glen beneath the
stratum of lighter and warmer air.
I have stood near the entrance and
extended one hand into a tempera-
ture of 90 degrees while the other
hand was extended into a cool, flow
ing river of air with a temperature
of about 60 degrees. The air within
the cave has uniform temperature
summer and winter of 81 degrees.
The cave may be said to breathe
twice a year-inhaling during the
winter and exhaling during the
GUNNER. This breathing of the cave
and the purity of the air and its
freedom from germs are among the
most interesting problems to be
studied. By what process the air in
the cave becomes sterilized remains
to be determined.
But our faithful negro guide has
counted the party, selected the req
uisite number of lamps, and given
the word, and we follow him in sin
gle file down the rude stone steps
into the vestibule of the cave. Turn
ing, we look up at the beautiful eff
feet of daylight which we are leav-
ing and admire the delicate cas-
cade falling from the overhanging
arch at the entrance.
Here our lamps are lighted, and
we enter this silent, mysterious,
abode of eternal night,
where the heat of summer and the
cold of winter, the storms and thun-
ders of the outer world never pene-
trate. A few hundred yards and we
feel the peculiar sensation of emerg-
ing into expanding space. We catch
only glimpses of white limestone
projecting out of black shadows of
the faraway walls and ceiling of an
immense, almost circular room
about 70 feet high, which our guide
proclaims the rotunda.
We note the peculiar musical eff
:ect of the human voice. Years ago
It was my good fortune to hear a
German musical society
sing in this rotunda. / went far
away in one of the great avenues
eading from here, blew out my,
light and sat alone in the darkness
md listened while the grand an
hens rolled and reverberated |
through the lofty corridors in ma
este waves of melody. I could |
hen appreciate the inestimablep priv |
lege of the few who heard Jenny
lind sing here and who in the star
hamber heard a member of her
party render on his violin the pray
r from der Freischutz.
When the rotunda is illuminated,
We note the perfect clearness of the
atmosphere, the freedom from dust
PARTICLES of any kind, and we soon
earn that nowhere in the cave will
ven dust rise upon our shoes. We
lote also the exhilarating effect of
he air upon the members of our
'arty. It is believed that the air
las become oxygenated by chemical
'rocess; certainly, from its purity
nd dryness, it enables one to un-
ergo exercise for hours without
ense of fatigue Here before us is
whence of the wonderful dryness
f the air. The saltpeter watts erect
d in 1912 and the timbers which
ave remained in their present posi-
ion since then show no evidences
f decay. In these watts the saltpeter
vas leached from the nitrous earth
bounding in the upper and middle
ry avenues and used for the manu-
acture of gunpowder.
The war of 1912 was fought, on
he American side, with gunpowder
nade from saltpeter taken from
ayes, and Mammoth cave supplied
he greater part. One wonders how,
q the absence of germs and of de-
ay, the earth becomes charged with
nitrogen. It has been claimed that
itric acid in the atmosphere, com
lining with the limestone, forms nj
rate of calcium, and the disintegrat-
d waste from the walls and ceiling
fields the great supply of nitrogen
bounding in the cave.
1t requires a day and a half to
nake the regulation journeys