The Leader, enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1915-1921, 1920-07-21
DOES CAVE EXIST
UNDER STONE MT.
Biologists Will Investigate Supposed
Stupendous Cavern, AS Reported
by Alleged German Spy before
Death.

ATLANTA, July ia committee
OF noted biologists from three of the
prominent eastern universities, to-
gether with two we'll known field in
vestigators of the Smithsonian lnsti-
tute are modifying at Hagerstown,
Md. for early entrainment to DeKalb
county, Georgia, where they will con-
duct extensive borings and tunnelings
in an effort to prove that Andrew
Withingham, of Oil City, Penn, was
in his right mind when he declared
that stupendous cave exists under
Stone Maintain, one of Georgia's
greatest natural curiosities
Nottingham, in lengthy letter to
the occupant of the chair of geology
of a great New York University, set
forth mass of facts gathered by him
while in the service of the Imperial
German Intelligence Service in 1898.
He mailed his descriptions and his
drawings from Oil City on June 4.
He was run down by a taxicab in
Allentown, Pa. five days later. Now
the professors, deprived by the taxi
cab OF any possibility of conference
with this German spy, have deter
mined to find the truth for themselves.
Nottingham, who in his opening
paragraph says his name is not With
ingham at all, but is something rad
lcally Prussian, enters into minute
detail in his description of the cave
under Stone Mountain.
The cave, he writes, lis not in
the granite formation. That would
be impossible in igneous rock. 1t is,
! however, a vast hole caused by the
subsistence of the clays, shaes and
| llmestones which underlie this i'm
mense rock. Stone Mountain is not
where it was when it crystallized from
Its molten state, millions of years
ago. Some action, probably glacial,
from the SCARED appearance of the
nearly vertical face of the mountain,
mas moved its tremendous bulk over
miles OF ground. 1t is not an inte-
grail part OF the earth's bedrock for
nation. 1t is no more than pebble
thrown by a child, except for its
size. 1T rests upon a compact bed
OF red clay and of what is known in
georgia as "fullers EARTH. Beneath
! the rock are compact beds of gravel,
which once formed the bottom of a
great prehistoric river.
The cave, which can be entered
from the western side of the noun
tam (chart No. ~ is 98o feet long
ana has an average width of $50 feet.
Its Hoor is irregular, and ravine
SNAPPED with deep slope toward the
south. "A small stream runs down
TINS ravlne, and in the southern wall
OF the cave. AT this point (chart No
o. the distance from the floor of the
cave TO the roof, or the bottom of the
rock, must be 200 feet, certainly not
less, and probably more.
1he entrance was plainly visible
when l found it, in 1898, but having
important plans for the use of The
cave, and having communicated tbeee
plans to the Imperial German Intelli-
gence Service with recommendations
Tor use OF the cavern as a military
| pase Tor certain operations which 7
designed, l did not feel at liberty to
leave the mouth of the cavern omen
l blew part of the mountain over the
opening, and it remains buried now.
=. Inc unhappy result of the con-
illct IN which the Fatherland has been
temporarily crippled, and the German
government, moves me to disclose the
facts herein set forth for the benefit
of science" AZ
Professor H. S. Terkle, in com.
menting upon this astonishing enistIe
said only: 1T may be true. We ex,
pect TO nave our party and our equip
! ment IN Atlanta during the month of
/ August, and will begin our work
within few days after arrival. We
cannot afford to be skeptical in mat
tiers OF this kind If Stone Mountain
is detached rock, we want to know
it." "
Fancy groceries at right prices at