Arrival of a large Party--Second Visit--Lamps Extinguished--Laughable
Confusion--Wooden Bowl--Deserted Chambers--Richardson's Side-Saddle
Pit--The Labyrinth--Louisa's Dome--Gorin's Dome--Bottomless Pit--
Separation of our Party.
On being summoned to breakfast the next morning, we ascertained that a
large party of ladies and gentlemen had arrived during our absence,
who, like ourselves, were prepared to enter the Cave. They, however,
were for hurrying over the rivers, to the distant points beyond--we,
for examining leisurely the avenues on this side. At 8 o'clock, both
parties accompanied by their respective guides and making a very
formidable array, set out from the hotel, happy in the anticipation of
the "sights to be seen." It was amusing to hear the remarks, and to
witness the horror of some of the party on first beholding the mouth
of the Cave. Oh! it is so frightful!--It is so cold!--I _cannot_ go
in! Notwithstanding all this, curiosity prevailed, and down we
went--arranged our lamps, which being extinguished in passing through
the doorway by the strong current of air rushing outwards, there arose
such a clamor, such laughter, such screaming, such crying out for the
guides, as though all Bedlam had broke loose,--the guides exerting
themselves to quiet apprehensions, and the visiters of yesterday
knowing that there was neither danger nor just cause of alarm, doing
their utmost to counteract their efforts, by well feigned exclamations
of terror. At length the lamps were re-lighted and order being
restored, onward we went. The Vestibule and Church were each in turn
illuminated, to the enthusiastic delight of all--even those of the
party, who were but now so terrified, were loud in their expressions
of admiration and wonder. Arrived at the Giant's Coffin, we leave the
Main Cave to enter regions very dissimilar to those we have seen. A
narrow passage behind the Coffin leads to a circular room, one hundred
feet in diameter, with a low roof, called the Wooden Bowl, in allusion
to its figure, or as some say, from a wooden bowl having been found
here by some old miner. This Bowl is the vestibule of the Deserted
Chambers. On the right, are the Steeps of Time, (why so called we are
left to conjecture,) down which, descending about twenty feet, and
almost perpendicularly for the first ten, we enter the Deserted
Chambers, which in their course present features extremely wild,
terrific and multiform. For two hundred yards the ceiling as you
advance is rough and broken, but further on, it is waving, white and
smooth as if worn by water. At Richardson's Spring, the imprint of
moccasins and of children's feet, of some by-gone age, were recently
seen. There are more pits in the Deserted Chambers than in any other
portion of the Cave; and among the most noted are the Covered Pit, the
Side-Saddle Pit and the Bottomless Pit. Indeed the whole range of
these chambers, is so interrupted by pits, and throughout is so
irregular and serpentine and so bewildering from the number of its
branches, that the visiter, doubtful of his footing, and uncertain as
to his course, is soon made sensible of the prudence of the
regulation, which enjoins him, "not to leave the guide." "The Covered
Pit is in a little branch to the left; this pit is twelve or fifteen
feet in diameter, covered with a thin rock, around which a narrow
crevice extends, leaving only a small support on one side. There is a
large rock resting on the centre of the cover. The sound of a
waterfall may be heard from the pit but cannot be seen." The
Side-Saddle Pit is about twenty feet long and eight feet wide, with a
margin about three feet high, and extending lengthwise ten feet,
against which one may safely lean, and view the interior of the pit
and dome. After a short walk from this place, we came to a ladder on
our right, which conducted us down about fifteen feet into a narrow
pass, not more than five feet wide; this pass is the Labyrinth, one
end of which leads to the Bottomless Pit, entering it about fifty feet
down, and the other after various windings, now up, now down, over a
bridge, and up and down ladders, conducts you to one of the chief
glories of the Cave,--Gorin's Dome; which, strange to tell, was not
discovered until a few years ago. Immediately behind the ladder, there
is a narrow opening in the rock, extending up very nearly to the cave
above, which leads about twenty feet back to Louisa's Dome, a pretty
little place of not more than twelve feet in diameter, but of twice
that height. This dome is directly under the centre of the cave we had
just been traversing, and when lighted up, persons within it can be
plainly seen from above, through a crevice in the rock. Arrived at
Gorin's Dome, we were forcibly struck by the seeming appearance of
_design_, in the arrangement of the several parts, for the special
accommodation of visiters--even with reference to their number. The
Labyrinth, which we followed up, brought us at its termination, to a
window or hole, about four feet square, three feet above the floor,
opening into the interior of the dome, about midway between the bottom
and top; the wall of rock being at this spot, not more than eighteen
inches thick; and continuing around, and on the outside of the dome,
along a gallery of a few feet in width, for twenty or more paces, we
arrived at another opening of much larger size, eligibly disposed, and
commanding, like the first, a view of very nearly the whole interior
space. Whilst we are arranging ourselves, the guide steals away,
passes down, down, one knows not how, and is presently seen by the dim
light of his lamp, fifty feet below, standing near the wall on the
inside of the dome. The dome is of solid rock, with sides apparently
fluted and polished, and perhaps two hundred feet high. Immediately in
front and about thirty feet from the window, a huge rock seems
suspended from above and arranged in folds like a curtain. Here we are
then, the guide fifty feet below us. Some of the party thrusting their
heads and, in their anxiety to see, their bodies through the window
into the vast and gloomy dome of two hundred feet in height. The
window is not large enough to afford a view to all at once, they crowd
one on the top of the other; the more cautious, and those who do not
like to be squeezed, stand back; but still holding fast to the
garments of their friends for fear they might in the ecstasy of their
feelings, leap into the frightful abyss into which they are looking.
Suddenly the guide ignites a _Bengal light_. The vast dome is radiant
with light. Above, as far as the eye can reach, are seen the shining
sides of the fluted walls; below, the yawning gulf is rendered the
more terrific, by the pallid light exposing to view its vast depth,
the whole displaying a scene of sublimity and splendor, such as words
have not power to describe. Returning, we ascended the ladder near
Louisa's Dome, and continued on, having the Labyrinth on our right
side until it terminates in the Bottomless Pit. This pit terminates
also the range of the Deserted Chambers, and was considered the Ultima
Thule of all explorers, until within the last few years, when Mr.
Stephenson of Georgetown, Ky. and the intrepid guide, Stephen,
conceived the idea of reaching the opposite side by throwing a ladder
across the frightful chasm. This they accomplished, and on this
ladder, extending across a chasm of twenty feet wide and near two
hundred deep, did these daring explorers cross to the opposite side,
and thus open the way to all those splendid discoveries, which have
added so much to the value and renown of the Mammoth Cave. The
Bottomless Pit is somewhat in the shape of a horse-shoe, having a
tongue of land twenty seven feet long, running out into the middle of
it. From the end of this point of land, a substantial bridge has been
thrown across to the cave on the opposite side.
[Illustration: BOTTOMLESS PIT.
On Stone by T. Campbell
Bauer & Teschemacher's Lith.]
While standing on the bridge, the guide lets down a lighted paper into
the deep abyss; it descends twisting and turning, lower and lower, and
is soon lost in total darkness, leaving us to conjecture, as to what
may be below. Crossing the bridge to the opposite cave, we find
ourselves in the midst of rocks of the most gigantic size lying along
the edge of the pit and on our left hand. Above the pit is a dome of
great size, but which, from its position, few have seen. Proceeding
along a narrow passage for some distance, we arrived at the point from
which diverge two noted routes--the Winding Way and Pensico Avenue.
Here we called a short halt; then wishing our newly formed
acquintances [Transcriber's note: sic] a safe voyage over the "deep
waters," we parted; they taking the left hand to the Winding Way and
the rivers, and we the right to Pensico Avenue.