Daily Kennebec journal., 1925-05-26

take refuge from the wild storms
and bitter temperatures Of prehis-
toric time. And today, after a thou
sand centuries Of evolution, there
fingers yet in his consciousness a
dim, primeval longing for the dark
underground recesses and sunless
labyrinths in which his savage
forebears made their successful
stand against the incredible hard
ships of existence.
So inextricably is the Present
mingled with the Past that it Of
ten happens, when the modern ex-
plorer scrambles on hands and
knees through the tortuous pas
sages and corridors, that he treads
all unwittingly upon the mausoleum
of his ancient ancestors, buried
layer upon layer in the accumulat-
ed rubbish of centuries.
But whether or not such caves
yield evidences of Paleolithic oc-
cupation. they remain an unfailing
source of interest, not only to the
scientist. but to the average per-
son, who finds a strange delight
in venturing into the mysterious
darkness Of this subterranean
realm.
An Ase-oId Mystery
What tremendous forces rived
these mighty crevices in the living
rock? To what limits do they ex-
tend, and what unlighted secrets
do they mold? 1t is an old question,
which offers perpetual challenge
to the restless curiosity and intel
lectual hunger of Man.
Not long ago the country was
swept with horror at the fatal out
come Of a daring attempt to pene-
trate the hidden mysteries of the
earth. Crawling alone through a
precipitous crack in the crumbling
rock near Cave City, Kentucky, a
man was pinned beneath a fallen
boulder in CONSTRUCTED pocket
sixty feet below the surface and
there died after Is days of torture,
despite the best efforts of his
would-be rescuers to extricate him.
One more such attempt, less trag-
ic and more picturesque in its as
poets, was made recently in the
famous Endless Caverns Of Vir-
ginia, vast maze of tangled pas
sages and vaulted grottoes which
stretch for miles beneath the
Shenandoah Valley. to what limits
no man knows. Thirteen men and
one woman went down into the
Stygian blackness of the caves to
search for their ultimate confines.
For days they pursued their quest,
penetrating into subterranean re-
gions where no human foot had
ever trod before. And in the end,
after many adventures, they were
forced to turn, back unsatisied, baf-
fed by the jealous guardianship
which Nature keeps over the hid
den secrets of her domain.
In Shenandoah Valley
The Endless Caverns are cut in
the extensive geological formation
known as the Shenandoah lime
stone, portion OF the great Ap-
palachian Valley which stretches
from Birmingham in the south to
Albany in the north, walled in by
the parallel ridges Of the Allegheny
and Blue Ridge Mountains.
At certain places, where these
cayerns approach close to the sur
face, the crust of the earth has
given away, leaving sinkholes and
orifices. Such a one, at Newman
ket, Virginia, ten miles from Staun-
ton, has been known since an ear
ly period of American history as
the entrance to the famous caves
which popular tradition has rep
resented as endless.
A Serious Undertaking
It was in an effort to disprove
this legend by actual investigation
that the party organized by the Ex-
plorers' Club gathered there. They
were equipped with all the para
phernalia which is associated with
subterranean exploration: power
full focusing hand flashlights with
an ample reserve supply Of bat
teries, coils of rope, food, geolo-
gists' hammers, cameras, calcium
flares for Photographic work, first
aid kits, and hob-nailed boots with
the Oldest of old clothes. The lat
ter items are always advisable
when exploring underground, for
much Of the going is through mud
and over Shiny, wet surfaces. j.
Thus attired, the individual mem
bers of the party gave little evi-
dence of their distinguished posi-
tions in the ordinary walks OF life.
One might have been pardoned, for
instance, for failing to recognize
the tall person in the battered cap,
venerable sweater, and muddy rid
ing breeches as DR.. Chester A.
Reeds, Associate Curator OF In
vertebrate Paleontology at the
American Museum Of Natural His
tory in New York.
Neither was there any visible