USA > Kentucky > Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II > Part 24
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From the Little Bat Room, and Audubon Avenue, the visitor returns into the vestibule, from whence, by another passage, at right angles to that just mentioned, he enters the grand gallery or main cavern. This is a vast tunnel, extending for many miles, averaging throughout fifty feet in width by as many in height. This noble subterrantau avenue, the largest of which we have any knowledge, is re- plete with interest from its varied characteristics and majestic grandeur. Pro- ceeding down this main cave a quarter of a mile, the visitor comes to the Ken- tucky cliffs, so called from a fancied resemblance to the cliffs on the Kentucky river, and descending gradually about twenty feet, enters the Church. The ceil- ing here is sixty-three feet high, and the church itself, including the recess, is about one hundred feet in diameter. Eight or ten feet above the pulpit, and immediately behind it, is the organ loft, which is sufficiently capacious for an or- gan and choir of the largest size. This church is large enough to contain thou- sands, a solid projection of the wall seems to have been designed as a pulpit, and a few feet back is a place well calculated for an organ and choir. In this great .emple of nature, religious service has been frequently performed, and it requires but a slight effort on the part of the speaker to make himself heard by the largest congregation.
Leaving the church, the visitor is brought to the ruins of the old nitre works, leaching vats, pump frames, &c., &c., and looking from thence some thirty feet above, will see a large cave, connected with which is a narrow gallery, sweeping across the main cave, and losing itself in a cave which is seen above, upon the right. This latter cave is the Gothic Avenue, which no doubt was at one time
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connected with the cave opposite, and on the same level, forming a complete bridge over the main cave, but has been broken down and separated by some great convulsion. The cave on the left, which is filled with sand, has been pen- etrated but a short distance. The Gothic Avenue, to which the visitor ascends from the main cave by a flight of stairs, is about forty feet wide, fifteen feet high. and two miles long. The ceiling in many places is as smooth and white as if formed by the trowel of the most skillful plasterer. In a recess on the left hand, elevated a few feet above the floor, two mummies, long since taken away. were to be seen in 1813. They were in good preservation-one was a female, with her extensive wardrobe placed before her. Two of the miners found a mum- my in Audubon avenue in 1814 ; but having concealed it, it was not found unti! 1840, when it was so much injured and broken to pieces by the weights which had been placed upon it, as to be of no value. There is no doubt that by proper efforts discoveries might be made which would throw light on the history of the early inhabitants of this continent. A highly scientific gentleman of New York, one of the early visitors to the cave, says in his published narrative :
"On my first visit to the Mammoth Cave in 1813, I saw a relic of ancient times which requires a minute description. This description is from a memorandum made in the cave at the time.
" In the digging of saltpetre earth in the short cave, a flat rock was met with by the work men, a little below the surface of the earth, in the cave : this stone was raised, and was about four feet wide, and as many long ; beneath it was a square excavation about three feet deep, and as many in length and width. In this small nether subterranean chamber sat in solemn silence one of the human species, a female, with her wardrobe and ornaments placed at her side. The body was in a state of perfect preservation, and sitting erect. The arms were folded up, and the hands were laid across the bosom ; around the two wrists was wound a small cord, designed, probably, to keep them in the posture in which they were first placed ; around the body and next thereto were wrapped two deer skins. These skins appeared to have been dressed in some mode different from what is now practiced by any people of whom I have any knowledge. The hair of the skins was cut off very near the surface. The skins were ornamented with the imprints of vines and leaves, which were sketched with a substance perfectly white. Outside of these two skins was a large square sheet, which was either wove or knit. The fabric was the inner bark of a tree, which I judge from appearances to be that of the linn tree. In its texture and appearance, it re- sembled the south sea island cloth or matting ; this sheet enveloped the whole body or head. The hair on the head was cut off within an eighth of an inch of the skin, except near the neck, where it was an inch long. The color of the hair was a dark red ; the teeth were white and perfect. I discovered no blemish upon the body, except a wound between two ribs, near the back bone ; and one of the eyes had also been injured. The finger and toe nails were perfect and quite long. The features were regular. I measured the length of one of the bones of the arm with a string, from the elbow to the wrist joint, and they equalled my own in length, viz :- ten and a half inches. From the examination of the whole frame I judged the figure to be that of a very tall female, say five feet ten inches in height. The body, at the time it was discovered, weighed but fourteen pounds, and was perfectly dry ; on exposure to the atmosphere, it gained in weight, by absorbing dampness, four pounds. Many persons have expressed surprise that a human body of great size should weigh so little, as many human skeletons, of nothing but bone, exceed this weight.
" Recently some experiments have been made in Paris, which have demonstrated the fact of the human body being reduced to ten pounds, by being exposed to a heated atmosphere for a long period of time. The color of the skin was dark, not black ; the flesh was hard and dry upon the bones. At the side of the body lay a pair of moccasins, a knapsack. and an indispensable, or reticule. I will describe these in the order in which I have named them. The moccasins were made of wove or knit bark, like the wrapper I have described. Around the top was a border to add strength, and perhaps as an ornament. These were of middling size, denoting feet of a small size. The shape of the moccasins differs but little from the deer skin moccasins worn by the northern Indians. The knapsack was of wove or knit bark, with a deep strong border around the top, and was about the size of knapsacks used by soldiers. The workmanship of it was neat, and such as would do credit as a fabric, to a man- ufacturer of the present day. The reticule was also made of knit or wove bark. The shape was much like a horseman's valise, opening its whole length on the top. On the side of the opening, and a few inches from it, were two rows of loops, one row on each side. Twc cords were fastened to one end of the reticule at the top, which passed through the loop or one side, and then on the other side, the whole length, by which it was laced up and secured The edges of the top of the reticule were strengthened with deep fancy borders. The arti
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cles contained in the knapsack and reticule were quite numerous, and were as follows; one head cap, made of wove or knit bark, without any border, and of the shape of the plainest night cap; seven head dresses, made of the quills of large birds, and put together somewhat in the way that feather fans are made, except that the pipes of the quills are not drawn to a point, but are spread out in straight lines with the top. This was done by perforating the pipe of the quill in two places, and running two cords through the holes, and then winding round the quills and the cord fine thread, to fasten each quill in the place designed for it. These cords extended some length beyond the quills on each side, so that on placing the feathers erect, the cords could be tied together at the back of the head. This would enable the wearer to present a beautiful display of feathers standing erect, and extending a distance above the head, and entirely surrounding it. These were most splendid head dresses, and would be a magnificent ornament to the head of a female at the present day. Several hun- dred strings of beads; these consisted of very hard, brown seed, smaller than hemp seed, in each of which a small hole had been made, and through the whole a small three corded thread, similar in appearance and texture to seine twine; these were tied up in bunches, as a merchant ties up coral beads when he exposes them for sale. The red hoofs of fawns, on a string supposed to be worn around the neck as a necklace. These hoofs were about twenty in number, and may have been emblematic of innocence. The claw of an eagle, with a hole made in it through which a cord was passed, so that it could be worn pendant from the neck. The jaw of a bear, designed to be worn in the same manner as the eagle's claw, and supplied with a cord to suspend it around the neck. Two rattlesnake skins; one of these had fourteen rattles; these skins were neatly folded up. Some vegetable colors done up in leaves. A small bunch of deer sinews, resembling cat-gut in appearance. Several bunches of thread and twine, two and three threaded, some of which were nearly white. Seven needles, some of which were of horn and some of bone; they were sinooth, and appeared to have been much used. These needles had each a knob or whorl on the top, and at the other end were brought to a point like a large sail needle. 'They had no eyelets to receive a thread. 'The top of one of these needles was handsomely scolloped. A hand piece made of deer-skin, with a hole through it for the thumb, and designed probably to protect the hand in the use of the needle, the same as thimbles are now used. 'I'wo whistles, about eight inches long, made of cane, with a joint about one third the length ; over the joint is an opening extend- ing to each side of the tube of the whistle; these openings were about three quarters of an inch long, and an inch wide, and had each a flat reed placed in the opening. These whistles were tied together with a cord wound round them.
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" I have been thus minute in describing this mute witness from the days of other times, and the articles which were deposited within her earthen house. Of the race of people to whom she belonged when living we know nothing; and as to conjecture, the reader who gathers from these pages this account, can judge of the matter as well as those who saw the remnant of mortality in the subterranean chambers in which she was entombed. The cause of the pres- ervation of her body, dress, and ornaments, is no mystery. The dry atmosphere of the cave, with the nitrate of lime, with which the earth that covers the bottom of these nether palaces is so highly impregnated, preserves animal flesh, and it will neither putrify nor decompose when confined to its unchanging action. Heat and moisture are both absent from the cave, and it is these two agents acting together which produce both animal and vegetable decom- position and putrefaction.
"In the ornaments, &c., of this mute witness of ages gone, we have a record of olden- time, from which, in the absence of a written record, we may draw some conclusions. In the various articles which constituted her ornaments, there were no metallic substances. In the make of her dress, there is no evidence of the use of any other machinery than the bone and horn needles. The beads are of a substance, of the use of which for such purposes we have no account among people of whom we have any written record. She had no warlike arms. By what process the hair on her head was cut short, or by what process the deer skins were shorn, we have no means of conjecture. These articles afford us the same means of judging of the nation to which she belonged, and of their advances in the arts, that future generations will have in the exhumation of a tenant of one of our modern tombs, with the funeral shroud &c. in a state of like preservation ; with this differ- ence, that with the present inhabitants of this section of the globe, but few articles of orna- ment are deposited with the body. The features of this ancient member of the human family much resembled those of a tall, handsome, American woman. The forehead was high, and the head well formed."
In this chamber (the Gothic Avenue), there are to be seen a number of stalag- mite pillars reaching from the floor to the ceiling, once white and translucent, but now black and begrimed with smoke. In this chamber, too, there are a num- ber of stalactites, one of which, called the Bell, on being struck, gave forth a sound like the deep bell of a cathedral ; but was broken several years ago by a
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visitor, and now tolls no longer. In this chamber, also, are Louisa's Bower and Vulcan's Furnace. In the latter, there is a heap not unlike cinders in appearance, and some dark colored water. Here, too, are the Register Rooms, where on a ceiling as smooth and white as if finished by art, thousands of names have been traced by the smoke of a candle. In this neighborhood the visitor reaches the Stalagmite Hall or Gothic Chapel, an elliptical chamber, eighty feet long by fifty feet wide. Stalaginite columns, of enormous size, nearly block up the two ends ; and two rows of pillars of smaller dimensions, reaching from the floor to the ceiling, and equi-distant from the wall on either side, extend the entire length of the hall. This apartment is one of surprising grandeur and magnificence, and when brilli- antly lighted up by the lamps, presents a scene inspiring the beholder with feel- ings of solemnity and awe. The Devil's Arm Chair is a large stalagmite column, in the centre of which is formed a capacious and comfortable seat. Near the foot of the Chair is a small basin of sulphur water. In this Avenue are situated Napoleon's Breast Work, the Elephant's Head, and the Lover's Leap. The latter is a large pointed rock, projecting over a dark and gloomy hollow, thirty feet deep. Descending into the hollow, immediately below the Lover's Leap, the visitor enters, to the left, a passage or chasm in the rock, three feet wide and fifty feet high, which leads to the lower branch of the Gothic Avenue. At the en- trance of this lower branch, is a large flat rock called Gatewood's Dining Table, to the right of which is a cave, in which is situated the Cooling Tub, -a beauti ful basin of six feet wide and three deep-into which a small stream of the pur- est water pours from the ceiling and afterwards flows into the Flint Pit. Cir- cling round Gatewood's Dining Table, which almost blocks up the way, the visitor passes Napoleon's Dome, the Cinder Banks, the Crystal Pool, the Salts Cave, etc., and descending a few feet, and leaving the direct course of the cave, enters on the right Annett's Dome,-a place of great seclusion and grandeur. Through a crevice in the wall of this Dome is a beautiful waterfall-issuing in a stream of a foot in diameter from a high cave in the side of the dome, and pass- ing off by a small channel into the Cistern, a large pit directly in the pathway of the cave, which is usually full of water. Near the end of this lower branch of the Gothic Avenue, 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.
Returning from the Gothic Avenue, again into the main cave, which continues to increase in interest as he advances, the visitor is met at every step by some- thing to elicit his admiration and wonder. At a small distance from the stairs which descend from the Gothic Avenue into the main cave, is situated the Ball Room, so called from its singular adaptation to such assemblages. Here is an orchestra fifteen feet high, large enough to accommodate a hundred musicians, with a gallery extending back to the level of the high embankment near the Gothic Avenue; and the cave is here wide, straight, and perfectly level for several hundred feet. By the addition of a plank floor, seats and lamps, a ball room might be furnished, more grand and magnificent than any other on earth. Next in order is Willie's Spring, a beautiful fluted niche in the left hand wall, caused by the continual attrition of water trickling down into the basin below. Pro- ceeding onwards the visitor passes the Well Cave, Rocky Cave, etc. etc., and ar- rives at the Giant's Coffin, a huge rock on the right, thus named from its singu- lar resemblance to a coffin. At this point commence those incrustations which, assuming every imaginable shape on the ceiling, afford full scope to the fancy, to picture what it will, whether of " birds, or beasts or creeping things." About a hundred yards beyond the Coffin, the cave makes a majestic curve, and sweeping round the Great Bend, resumes its general course. Here, by means ot a Bengal light, this vast amphitheatre may be illuminated and a scene of enchantment ex- posed to the view. No language can describe the splendor and sublimity of the scene. Opposite to this point is the entrance to the Sick Room Cave, so called from the sudden sickness of a visitor, brought on by smoking cigars in one of its remote nooks. Immediately beyond this there is situated a row of cabins for consumptive patients. These are well furnished, and would, with good and com- fortable accommodations, pure air and uniform temperature, cure the pulmonary consumption. The atmosphere of the cave is always temperate and pure.
Next in the order of succession, is the Star Chamber. This is a very remark II ... 11
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able avenue, and presents the most perfect optical illusion ; in looking up to the ceiling, which is very high, the spectator seems to see the very firmament itself, studded with stars,-and afar off, a comet. with its long, bright tail. Not far from this Star Chamber, may be seen in a cavity in the wall on the right, and about twenty feet above the floor, an oak pole, about ten feet long and six inches in diameter, with two round sticks of half the thickness, and three feet long, tied on to it transversely, at about four feet apart. One end of this pole rests on the bottom of the cavity. and the other reaching across and forced firmly into a cre- vice about three feet above. It has been supposed that on this pole was once placed a dead body,-similar contrivances being used by some Indian tribes, on which to place their dead. This pole was first discovered in 1841. Ages have rolled away since it was placed here, and yet it is perfectly sound. In this neigh- borhood there are Side Cuts, as they are called ; caves opening on the sides of the avenues, and after proceeding some distance, entering them again. Some of these side cuts exceed half a mile in length, but they are generally short.
The visitor next enters the Salts room, the walls and ceiling of which are cov- ered with salts hanging in crystals. In this room are the Indian houses under the rocks,-small spaces or rooms completely covered-some of which contain ashes and cane partly burnt. The Cross rooms is a grand section of this avenue ; the ceiling presenting an unbroken span of one hundred and seventy feet, with- out a column to support it. In this neighborhood are the Black Chambers, in which are to be seen many curious and remarkable objects. The Humble Chute is the entrance to the Solitary chambers, in going into which you must crawl on your hands and knees some fifteen or twenty feet under a low arch. In the Sol- itary cave is situated the Fairy Grotto; here an immense number of stalactites are seen at irregular distances, extending from the roof to the floor, of various sizes and of the most fantastic shapes-some straight, some crooked, some large and hollow, forming irregularly fluted columns; and some solid near the ceiling, and divided lower down, into a great number of small branches like the roots of trees, exhibiting the appearance of a coral grove. Lighted up by lamps, this grove of stalactites exhibits a scene of extraordinary beauty. Returning from the Fairy Grotto, you re-enter the main cave at the Cataract, and come next to the chief city or Temple, which is thus described by Lee in his notes on the Mam- moth Cave :
"The Temple is an immense vault, covering an area of two acres, and covered by a single dome of solid rock, one hundred and twenty feet high. It excels in size the cave of Staffa ; and rivals the celebrated vault in the Grotto of Antiparos, which is said to be the largest in the world. In passing through from one end to the other, the dome appears to follow like the sky in passing from place to place on the earth. In the middle of the dome there is a large mound of rocks rising on one side nearly to the top, very steep, and forming what is called the mountain. When first I ascended this mound from the cave below, I was struck with a feeling of awe, more deep and intense than any thing I had ever before experienced. I could only observe the narrow circle which was illuminated immediately around me, above and beyond was apparently an unlimited space, in which the ear could catch not the slightest sound, nor the eye find an object to rest upon. It was filled with silence and darkness; and yet I knew that I was beneath the earth, and that this space, however large it might be, was actually bounded by solid walls. My curiosity was rather excited than gratified. In order that I might see the whole in one connected view, I built fires in many places with the pieces of cane which I found scattered among the rocks. Then taking my stand on the mountain, a scene was presented of surprising magnificence. On the opposite side, the strata of gray limestone breaking up by steps from the bottom, could scarcely be discerned in the distance by the glimmering. Above was the lofty dome, closed at the top by a smooth oval slab beautifully defined in the outline, from which the walls sloped away on the right and left, into thick darkness. Every one has heard of the dome of the mosque of St. Sophia, of St. Peter's and St. Paul's; they are never spoken of but in terms of admiration, as the chief works of architecture, and among the noblest and most stupendous examples of what man can do when aided by science ; and yet, when compared with the dome of this temple, they sink into comparative insignificance. Such is the surpassing grandeur of nature's works."
A narrow passage behind the Giant's 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, down which descending about twenty feet, and almost perpendicularly for the first ten, the visitor enters the Deserted
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Chambers, which present features extremely wild and terrific. For two hundred yards the ceiling is rough and broken, but further on it is white, smooth and waving, as if worn by water. At Richardson's Spring the inprint of moccasins and of children's feet of some by- gone age, are to be seen. There are more pits in the Deserted Chambers than in any other part of the cave ; among the most remarkable of these, are the Covered Pit, the Side-saddle Pit and the Bottomless Pit. One of the chief glories of the cave is Gorin's Dome. This dome is of solid rock, with sides apparently fluted and polished, and two hundred feet high. The range of the Deserted Chambers is terminated by the Bottomless Pit. This pit is some- what in the shape of a horse-shoe, having a tongue of land twenty-seven feet long, running out into the middle of it. Beyond the Bottomless Pit is the Winding Way, and Persico Avenue.
Persico Avenue averages about fifty feet in width, with a height of about thirty feet ; and is said to be two miles long. It unites in an eminent degree the beautiful and the sublime, and is highly interesting throughout its entire extent. For a quarter of a mile from the entrance the roof is beautifully arched, about twelve feet high and sixty wide. The walk- ing here is excellent, a dozen persons might run abreast for a quarter of a mile to Bunyan's Way, a branch of the avenue leading to the river. At this point the avenue changes its features of beauty and regularity for those of wild grandeur and sublimity, which it preserves to the end. The roof becomes lofty and imposingly magnificent, its long pointed or lancet arches, reminding the spectator of the rich and gorgeous ceilings of the old Gothic cathe- drals. Not far from this point the visitor descending gradually a few feet, enters a tunnel of fifteen wide, the ceiling twelve or fourteen feet high, perfectly arched and beautifully covered with white incrustations, and soon reaches the Great Crossings. The name is not unapt, because two great caves cross here. Not far from here is the Pine-apple Bush, a large column composed of a white soft crumbling material, with bifurcations extending from the ceiling. The Winding Way is one hundred and five feet long, eighteen inches wide, and from three to seven feet deep, widening out above sufficiently to adinit the free use of one's arms. It is throughout tortuous, forming a perfect zig-zag.
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