Stalagmite Pillars--The Bell--Vulcan's Furnace--Register Rooms--
Stalagmite Hall or Gothic Chapel--Devil's Arm-Chair--Elephant's
Head--Lover's Leap--Napoleon's Dome--Salts Cave--Annetti's Dome.
Resuming our explorations in this most interesting avenue, we soon
came in sight of stalagmite pillars, reaching from the floor to the
ceiling, once perhaps white and translucent, but now black and
begrimed with smoke. At this point we were startled by the hollow
tread of our feet, caused by the proximity of another large avenue
underneath, which the guide assured us he had often visited. In this
neighborhood too, there are a number of Stalactites, one of which was
called the Bell, which on being struck, sounded like the deep bell of
a cathedral; but it now no longer tolls, having been broken in twain
by a visiter from Philadelphia some years ago. Further on our way, we
passed Louisa's Bower and Vulcan's Furnace, where there is a heap, not
unlike cinders in appearance, and some dark colored water, in which I
suppose the great forger used to slake his iron and perhaps his bolts.
Next in order and not very distant are the new and old Register Rooms.
Here on the ceiling which is as smooth and white as if it had been
finished off by the plasterer, thousands of names have been traced by
the smoke of a candle--names which can create no pleasing associations
or recollections; names unknown to fame, and which might excite
disgust, when read for the first time on the ceiling which they have
disfigured.
[Illustration: STALAGMITE HALL OR GOTHIC CHAPEL.
On Stone by T. Campbell
Bauer & Teschemacher's Lith.]
Soon after leaving the old Register Room, we were halted by our guide,
who took from us all the lamps excepting one. Having made certain
arrangements, he cried aloud, "Come on!" which we did, and in a few
moments entered an apartment of surprising grandeur and magnificence.
This apartment or hall is elliptical in shape and eighty feet long by
fifty wide. Stalagmite columns, of vast size nearly block up the two
ends; and two rows of pillars of smaller dimensions, reaching from
floor to ceiling and equidistant from the wall on either side, extend
its entire length. Against the pillars, and in many places from the
ceiling, our lamps were hanging, and, lighting up the whole space,
exhibited to our enraptured sight a scene surpassingly grand, and well
calculated to inspire feelings of solemnity and awe. This is the
Stalagmite Hall, or as some call it, the Gothic Chapel, which no one
can see under such circumstances as did our party, without being
forcibly reminded of the old, very old cathedrals of Europe.
Continuing our walk we came to the Devil's Arm-Chair. This is a large
Stalagmite column, in the centre of which is formed a capacious seat.
Like most other visiters we seated ourselves in the chair of his
Satanic Majesty, and drank sulphur water dipped up from a small basin
of rock, near the foot of the chair. Further on we passed a number of
Stalactites and Stalagmites, Napoleon's Breast-Work, (behind which we
found ashes and burnt cane,) the Elephant's Head, the Curtain, and
arrived at last at the Lover's Leap. The Lover's Leap is a large
pointed rock projecting over a dark and gloomy hollow, thirty or more
feet deep. Our guide told us that the young ladies often asked their
beaux to take the Lover's Leap, but that he never knew any to "love
hard enough" to attempt it. We descended into the hollow, immediately
below the Lover's Leap, and entered to the left and at right-angle
with our previous course, a passage or chasm in the rock, three feet
wide and fifty feet high, which conducted us to the lower branch of
the Gothic Avenue. At the entrance of this lower branch is an
immensely large flat rock called Gatewood's Dining Table, to the right
of which is a cave, which we penetrated, as far as the Cooling Tub--a
beautiful basin of water six feet wide and three deep--into which a
small stream of the purest water pours itself from the ceiling and
afterwards finds its way into the Flint Pit at no great distance.
Returning, we wound around Gatewood's Dining Table, which nearly
blocks up the way, and continued our walk along the lower branch more
than half a mile, passing Napoleon's Dome, the Cinder Banks, the
Crystal Pool, the Salts Cave, etc., etc. Descending a few feet and
leaving the cave which continues onwards, we entered, on our right, a
place of great seclusion and grandeur, called Annetti's Dome. Through
a crevice in the right wall of the dome is a waterfall. The water
issues in a stream a foot in diameter, from a high cave in the side of
the dome--falls upon the solid bottom, and passes off by a small
channel into the Cistern, which is directly on the pathway of the
cave. The Cistern is a large pit, which is usually kept nearly full of
water.
Near the end of this branch, (the lower branch) there is a crevice in
the ceiling over the last spring, through which the sound of water may
be heard falling in a cave or open space above.
Highly gratified with what we had now seen in the Gothic Avenue, we
concluded to pursue it no further, but to retrace our steps to the
Main Cave, regretting however, that we had not visited the Salts Cave,
(a branch of the Gothic Avenue,) on being told, when too late, that it
would have amply compensated us for our trouble, being rich in fine
specimens of Epsom or Glauber salts.