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 A SKETCH BY 
 
 R.'^ELLSWORTH CALL, M. Sc, M. A M D 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 LOUISVILLE & NASHVILLE RAILROAD CO. 
 
 PASSENGER DEPARTMENT. 
 

 SOURIER-JOURNAl JOB PRINTIN6 CO., LOUISVILLE. 
 
 
i 
 
 ? MAMMOTH CAVE 
 
 ^pHE wonderful work of water in sculpturing the 
 vu surface of the earth is matter of common ob- 
 servation and of common. remark. Hill and valley, 
 
 gorge, canon and water- 
 fall, all have been seen 
 I w if"i Ultimate relation; no rock 
 
 ' i| so hard that it can forever 
 
 5 resist the action of the stream; 
 
 no mountain mass so great that it 
 will not some time yield entirely to 
 water ; no valley so deep it may not be 
 graven deeper or even filled to top by the transport- 
 ing power of running streams. These changes all 
 occur on the surface, and from our familiarity with 
 them fail, often, to engage our close attention. 
 
 But there is no rock so dense that through it 
 water will not pass; no union of particles so intimate 
 but the secret, chemical processes of the world 
 beneath can sever them; no place where all condi- 
 
tions of ordinary change associated with surface 
 laws are so variable as in the underground world. 
 
 The visitor to Mammoth Cave must not forget the 
 surface world when he walks through its immense 
 gorges, its magnificent avenues, its Titanic halls, its 
 star-bedecked domes. On every hand he will see 
 a wealth of features which always emphasize the 
 aspects of the outer world and explain them in a 
 new language. He will see solution so slow that it 
 is measured by tens of thousands of decades; he 
 will note crystallization so tedious that he will be 
 driven to madness should he attempt to compass the 
 years that have passed since the process began. 
 Should he question the fossil forms which sometimes 
 thickly stud the cliffs and ledges along which he will 
 pass they might tell to him a story beside which the 
 wildest creation of the Orient would appear but as 
 a tale of the nursery. In a thousand ways will he 
 be impressed with the persistency of Nature's force- 
 ful methods. If he be a man accustomed to reflec- 
 tion he will come to the upper world a wiser man; 
 if he be of poetic turn the somber shades through 
 which he has just passed, the great avenues open- 
 ing beyond into regions of infinite gloom, the lovely 
 crystals "of purest ray serene" that reflect the 
 
radiance of his light into still another corner of 
 eternal darkness and instead of revealing its out- 
 lines or a new beauty but 
 Extends its bounds, then 
 ps fancy will take a new 
 direction and his poems a 
 H different tenor. 
 _:' Mammoth Cave owes 
 its discovery to an acci- 
 dent, so the story goes, 
 which happened in the 
 year 1809. It is the 
 ''"'"' old story of a hunter 
 
 and a bear, the pursue/ and the pursued. The bear 
 was wounded and sought its lair in a vain endeavor 
 to escape. Hutchins, for such was the hunter's 
 name, lost no time in acquainting others with this 
 important discovery, and Mammoth Cave became 
 both a fact of history and of science. It is strange 
 to relate that its first exploitation was connected 
 with simply mercenary motives and that saltpetre, 
 intended for use in gunpowder and connected with 
 the war of 1812, was the incentive that led to more 
 complete examination. The men who mined the 
 soft soil, rich in nitre, are the men who first gave to 
 
the outside world any reliable information of the 
 great extent of this now famous world's wonder. 
 Albeit their stories savored of the wonderful to an 
 extent that many pronounced them romances, a 
 knowledge of the cave that was reaUy quite exact 
 became common property and the immense cavern 
 soon took its place among the great natural features 
 of earth. 
 
 A visit to Mammoth Cave constitutes a unique 
 experience in one's search of pleasure and the mar- 
 velous. From the moment of arrival at the quaint 
 old hostelry, which dates so far back toward the 
 beginning of the century that it is really a part of 
 the history of the cavern, to the last backward look 
 which is always given when the top of the rough 
 stairway of rock, at the entrance, is reached on the^ 
 return from the depths, there is continuous surpri: 
 new experience, pleasant memories, i]| 
 altogether unmixed with regret. The, 
 surroundings are not very unlike 
 those which the first visitors 
 saw. The old lumbeiing • < 
 stage-coach has given way to 
 the modern railway, with its 
 comforts and speed; the tre^^^ 
 
 LOVERS LEAP. 
 
of the forest are larger but just as numerous ; the 
 wild flowers spring up as abundantly and liven 
 the landscape as charmingly now as formerly; the 
 woods are as full of feathered songsters, the neigh- 
 boring river as prolific in brilliant and graceful fish, 
 the cliffs which line its course as grand and glorious 
 as when Hutchins first shot that famous bear. 
 
 Within the cavern the changes which have oc- 
 curred since the days of saltpetre mining are less 
 conspicuous still. In every essential respect the 
 visitor sees the same features, the same angles, the 
 same crystals — save where early Vandal hands have 
 robbed some of the alcoves and halls of their beautiful 
 forms; the same springs gush forth from dark re- 
 cesses, and the same streams disappear with many 
 a dash and reverberation into the same pits and 
 darksome crevices. The very pipes and supports 
 used by the workers in **peter-dirt" stand now as 
 when left by them nearly a century ago. The 
 famed houses in which the unfortunate consumptives 
 sought relief from a malady which alone needed 
 sunshine for momentary respite, but which no skill 
 or art of man could stay, still stand on the left in 
 the great recess called the Main Cave. The tracks 
 made by feet of patient oxen and ruts worn by wheel 
 
of creaking wagon still remain to tell of underground 
 toil in a gloom not less than that of famed Tartarus. 
 The rocks piled high on either side for a distance of 
 a half mile or more tell of the work needed to get the 
 much-sought nitrate to the upper world. Rude hie- 
 roglyphic scratches on walls tell of Bishop, of 
 Brantsford, of Miller and others who first sought to 
 unravel the mysteries of its branching avenues or to 
 sound the depths of its solitary recesses. Occasion- 
 ally, even yet, fragments of half-burned reeds, a 
 lost moccasin, a wooden-bowl, tell of visits of abo- 
 rigines long before foot of civilized man had awakened 
 the echoes of the lofty domes. Change there has 
 been, but it is so slow,. so secret, if one please, that 
 impressions formed th;^e-quarters of a century ag^d 
 are paralleled by those which 
 are awakened to-day. There 
 is only that change which comes 
 from wider acquaintance with 
 the windings of the chambers 
 into those that are new 
 and formerly unknown, 
 a change which makes 
 the visitor despair of ever 
 fully unraveling all the 
 
 EENTUOKY MONUMBNT, 
 
relations of the passages and crevices along which 
 he journeys or through which he crawls. The same 
 massive rocks, scattered in the 
 a me profusion, meet the eye 
 )ii every hand, for the Cave 
 has been preserved in all its 
 PJ beauty as an original work 
 of nature. The bridges over 
 rivers and stairs leading up 
 ^impassable cliffs, the iron 
 guards along places of danger 
 alone tell the visitor of the 
 work of man. 
 It the visitur diiter the great cavern in company 
 v/ith a chemist he will come forth well versed in 
 Nature's secrets. For here he will learn how water 
 charged with carbon dioxide has served as Nature's 
 graving tools. On the roofs and walls he will dis- 
 cover the effects which iron and manganese oxides 
 yield on a background of gray limestone. He will 
 learn something of crystallization and the beautiful 
 forms which these masses of sulphate of lime and 
 calcite assume. If he stop in the Fairy Grotto, or 
 tarry along Gothic Avenue, or venture into some of 
 the unfrequented passages miles away from the 
 
natural entrance, he will face enormous stalactites 
 and tread upon massive stalagmites the beginning 
 of which dates thousands of years back of the 
 Christian era. In Martha's Vineyard, beyond the 
 rivers, he will see those wonderful botryoidal forms 
 of calcite which give to the locality its name. If he 
 go far within Crystal Avenue he will learn how 
 those wonderful acicular crystals of gypsum grow 
 and spread out into a thousand fantastic forms, and 
 simulate the flowers of the upper world, but whose 
 petals are gigantic in comparison. Now and then 
 he will see these fanciful beauties growing in plain 
 defiance of the laws of gravitation and bending and 
 twisting in a thousand devious ways. In the almost 
 complete absence of water he will wonder how 
 these forms were originally put into solution, and 
 ask how are reproduced those beautiful crystals 
 which fall, as white and silently as flakes of snow, 
 at a sudden loud sound or echo. He will wonder at 
 the thousands of cubic yards of solid rock which 
 have been removed, and when he returns to the 
 upper world and visits the laboratory of his chemist 
 friend he will be chagrined at the puny processes of 
 art. 
 
 It is impossible to mention, less possible to de- 
 
scribe, all the objects of interest to visitors in this 
 most gigantic cavern of the world, hi no respect 
 have its attractions failed to meet the expectations 
 of the intelligent visitor. To the unintelligent its 
 story is as little understood as would be the famous 
 lyrics of Homer or the marble poems of Praxitiles. 
 The shells and corals which dot the walls of Echo 
 River or boss the smooth walls of Gorin's Dome tell 
 a story to those alone who have some intimate 
 acquaintance with Nature. The blind insects — 
 beetles, crickets, mites, gnats — the eyeless fish and 
 crustaceans and leeches, the snow-white toadstools, 
 all are meaningless to those who have never ques- 
 tioned the physical cause of vision. The naturalist 
 will find here a paradise, forms of life that are 
 unique, that range frt)m vertebrate to worm, and 
 llicsL J 11 u !1 him a story of antiquity and of life-law 
 
 that only a naturalist 
 may interpret. But if 
 the visitor seeks the 
 grand and impressive, if 
 there be attraction in Sty- 
 gian blackness, if the un- 
 canny noises accompa- 
 nying waters falling in 
 
 standino 
 .'hocks. 
 
THE ELEPHANTS 
 HEADS. 
 
 recesses that have yet escaped search, if the unison 
 of sounds coming from the dark and unfathomed 
 recesses of Echo River 
 back to the ear with a 
 harmony and beauty 
 that no cathedral note 
 ever yet equaled, find 
 a response in any hu- 
 man heart, then Mam- 
 moth Cave will never 
 cease to attract visitors 
 of every degree and from every land. 
 
 The Echo River is one of the most remarkable 
 features in this most remarkable group of wonders. 
 Only a small portion of its whole course is acces- 
 sible to visitors, but this part is truly wonderful. 
 At times the river flows with almost imperceptible 
 current, while at other times it fills quite to the top 
 the great River Hall, blotting out the Dead Sea and 
 the River Styx, both of which are really parts of the 
 underground stream. It is traversed by boats for 
 a distance of quite half a mile, and a ride over its 
 clear waters is one of the unique experiences of the 
 world — nowhere else can it be duplicated. The 
 voyager passes under a low arch for a short space 
 
and then the roof rises rapidly away from the water 
 and he enters upon his subterranean water-journey 
 in real fact. Nearly all the river is one vast reso- 
 nator, its branching avenues and side crevices, its 
 lofty roof of limestone rock, its ancient battlemented 
 shores, all serve as reflectors of every sound, no 
 matter how slight, and send it back intensified a 
 thousand times, with its roughnesses blended into 
 one sweet volume of glorious harmony. Nowhere 
 on earth, or in it, can such rich tone, coming back 
 to one with ever diminishing volume as it rolls 
 down along the unknown halls and is reflected from 
 secret chamber walls, be heard. Long experience 
 on the part of the well-trained guides enables the 
 production of the right notes to bring forth the 
 wonders of Echo River, and no visitor hears them 
 but is impressed with its glories. Time and again, 
 for months, have we listened to these noble 
 reverberations until they have become a part of our 
 musical nature. 
 
 Perhaps the largest single rock to be found, as a 
 detached mass, in the cavern is the Giant's Coffin. 
 Fact and fancy alike serve to make it attractive. 
 Its mass is very great, and its weight, estimated on 
 its measurements by taking the specific gravity of 
 
STAR CHAMBER 
 
limestone as com- 
 monly given, is 
 over two thou- 
 sand tons. This 
 immense rock has 
 been torn from 
 the side of the 
 Main Cave, and 
 when this fact 
 was accomplished, 
 away back in geo- 
 logic times,an avenue 
 was revealed which 
 alone had rendered pos- 
 sible, until William, the 
 guide, found the Corkscrew, a visit to the 
 remoter portions of the cavern. The rock upon 
 which the name of Giant's Coffin has been so well 
 bestowed is entirely of limestone, with a thick- 
 ness of eighteen and a total length of forty-three 
 feet. The visitor winds around it on the usual way 
 in which he goes to the '*end of the Cave" on the 
 long route. ''The Standing Rocks" are not far re- 
 moved from this part of the cavern and have been 
 similarly torn from the roof which is here nearly 
 
sixty feet high. They were detached at the same 
 time and by the same causes, whatever they were, 
 that made the Giant's Coffm a fact. But, in falling, 
 they struck upon their edge and sank deeply enough 
 in the material of the bottom to maintain that posi- 
 tion. They are detached masses of limestone 
 strata not more than two feet in thickness. 
 
 Far within the great cavern occur many interest- 
 ing and fantastic groupings of stalactitic matter that 
 require but little imagination to conceive them as 
 simulating familiar objects. Near the end of the 
 remarkable Pass of El Ghor — a tortuous, narrow, 
 but lofty, channel which marks the work of one of 
 the latest of the underground streams — the walls 
 above and on each side are one indescribable maze 
 -of ealcite accumulations. ,^i^re, as indeed is true 
 
 of all parts 
 of M a m - 
 moth Cave 
 where crys- 
 tallization is 
 in progress, 
 the under- 
 ground traveler 
 I ^^-^WH^^"'*'*''^ "^^^' proceeds along a 
 
 DINNER IN THE CAVE. 
 
pathway which is not far below the surface of 
 the ground. The characteristic phenomena which 
 indicate approach to the surface are, first, the 
 dripping of waters which only enter the channels 
 of this subterranean world at points near the 
 surface ; second, the growing stalactites, which 
 are only at the upper levels ; and, third, the sand- 
 stone strata which everywhere, in this part of Ken- 
 tucky, cap the subcarboniferous limestone. When 
 the uppermost limestone layers are worn or dis- 
 solved away, the sandstones still higher, far more 
 friable and yielding readily to the separatory power 
 of v/ater, break away into immense masses or even 
 into piles of rock which often completely close the 
 passages and limit many large avenues. The mag- 
 nificent avenue which opens from the Rotunda, and 
 which, after the celebrated ornithologist, is named 
 Audubon's Avenue, is entirely closed at a distance 
 of a half mile by a vast mass of rock detached, in 
 the manner described, from above. But a journey 
 to its end is well worth the time and toil, for here is 
 Olive's Bower, one of the most convenient of the 
 smaller recesses in which stalactitic formation may 
 be seen in progress ; at this locality occur some of 
 the most beautiful of the growing stalactites. In the 
 
middle of the bower is a well of limpid water, every 
 drop of which has played its part in adding a mite 
 to the massive crystals above, and which are re- 
 flected from its mirrored surface. Eventually, 
 through some secret passage, the water finds a way 
 to the Echo River, whence, in turn, it reaches the 
 Green River and again circulates in the world out- 
 side. 
 
 In many portions of those wonderfully intricate 
 channels known as Spark's Avenue and Pensico 
 Avenue, the tourist may hear reverberations of foot- 
 falls and wonderfully sweet echoes of human voices 
 coming apparently from the depths below. These 
 points, several of which are particularly excellent, 
 are really crossings /of his own passageway over 
 others still beneath him. In one place in Pensico 
 Avenue the listener actually stands above a dome 
 which, as he sounds a particular note, 
 
 ''-'VH^K^ serves as a 
 
 ^^^^ iHlii gigantic reson- 
 
 ance box, and 
 takes up the vibra- 
 tions of his voice 
 )nly to send it back 
 Lttuned and strength- 
 
 RIV^R 8TTX. 
 
ened a thousand fold. The very 
 earth beneath him is felt to tremble^ ^^' 
 as the vibrations reach their ma: 
 mum amplitude ; closely listeriing 
 one may hear the sweet volume ^?-^ 
 of sound rolling along avenues 
 yet untrodden by human fett 
 to be finally lost in the un- 
 known depths. The cele- 
 brated side passage known 
 as Gothic Avenue presents intti c.^i- 
 ing attractions which are of 
 unique character. Among them are the stalactites 
 which, abundant in this portion of the cavern, are 
 the largest and most remarkable within its limits. 
 Curious resemblances or historic and mythologic 
 events together have conspired to furnish names to 
 the largest of these. C^sar and Pompey, the Pil- 
 lar of Hercules, the Oak Tree, the Bridal Cham- 
 ber, the Elephants' Heads and the Wasps' Nests are 
 among the names which the fancy of the visitor or 
 the caprice of the guides has affixed to these relics 
 of former water action. Except at a single locality 
 this avenue, which is at the higher level of the cave, 
 is quite dry, and little, if any, change is now in 
 
progress. Beyond the usual terminus, at the rock 
 called Lovers' Leap, the avenue is quite closed by a 
 vast mass of sandstone debris fallen from above. 
 But down the steep hill at which the ** short route" 
 generally ends leads a pathway which passes 
 through a narrow passage in the vertical wall to the 
 left, fifty feet below, into Elbow Crevice — a portion 
 of the cavern which should be seen by all visitors. 
 Beyond the crevice lie the Cooling Tub, Vulcan's 
 Forge, Napoleon's Dome, Annetta's Dome, Sha- 
 ler's Brook — in which alone are found the 
 snow-white leeches — and several pits and domes 
 but recently discovered. The sound of fall- 
 ing waters comingy through small passages to 
 the right or left informs the visitor that in 
 this portion of the cave the processes of disintegra- 
 tion and solution are in active progress. From the 
 entrance of Gothic Avenue to Annetta's Dome the 
 visitor will have passed from the highest to the third 
 level. Around him and near him are pits which 
 extend downward to the level of Echo River, which 
 is not far distant from this chaotic locality. A hun- 
 dred objects are here that command one ; there are 
 poems registered in the rocks, fairy forms of bygone 
 ages that tell of life and sunshine ; and hard by thi-*^ 
 
CORKSCREW. 
 
 frail record of beauty lies 
 a fossil story of ruin and 
 death. The observer will 
 here find record of a former 
 world of organisms with 
 whose diminutive cousins 
 only has he now intimate 
 acquaintance. Here, in 
 sleep and silence enshrined, 
 they rest, small tattlers of 
 continental secrets ! 
 hi this portion of the cave the walls best exhibit 
 those phenomena which are always interpreted as 
 meaning the attrition^ of matter carried along by 
 running water. The passages are narrow, but high; 
 they become broader below. In the dim light of the 
 visitor's lamp the effect of a perspective drawing is 
 produced on looking upward, and the roofs of the 
 avenues appear to be far away. Pebbles, derived 
 from a thin layer of conglomerate far above, strew 
 the pathway and tell the story of wear and denuda- 
 tion. Animal life is not as abundant in this locality 
 as it is at the higher levels, but enough may be 
 found to demonstrate that no portion of the cavern in 
 which water is found is devoid of some organic forms. 
 
Perhaps visitors to Mammoth Cave are most im- 
 pressed with the lofty domes and deep pits which 
 are found in some portions of this underground 
 domain. Of those that are accessible to the visitor 
 without great danger and fatigue the best known 
 are Gorin's Dome, the Bottomless Pit, MammotlL 
 Dome, Napoleon's Dome, the Mael- 
 strom, and Scylla and Charyb- 
 dis, all but two of which are 
 situated in that intricate and 
 wonderful portion called the 
 Labyrinth. The first 
 named is viewed through 
 a natural circular opening 
 in the wall quite three- 
 fourths the way from the 
 bottom. Illuminated by the 
 guides from a point still above that at which-^Jthe. 
 visitor is stationed the effect of the brilliant lights 
 on the walls beyond, white as alabaster, fluted 
 and folded in a thousand curious and fantastic 
 forms, is indescribably grand and impressive. 
 Coupled with the great size of the space, every- 
 where shading off into infinite gloom, is the roar of 
 falling water, or the splash of Lilliputian cascades 
 
if seen in the dry season. Below, but beyond 
 observation, runs a portion of Echo River- into 
 which, from a station high above that occupied by 
 the guide, it is possible to throw stones the fall of 
 which awakens ten thousand sounds and echoes. 
 Stalactitic matter, of purest white, lends variety 
 to the vertical walls ; where this is wanting the 
 method of work of falling water, in bygone ages, 
 is clearly seen. Not far away is the Bottomless 
 Pit, and above it, rising sheer to the topmost level 
 of the cavern, is Shelby's Dome, named for the first 
 Governor of Kentucky. Its bottom, for notwith- 
 standing its name it has one, is nearly two hun- 
 dred feet below the level at which the observer 
 stands. For many years it was an insurmountable 
 obstacle to further exploration in this direction until 
 Bishop, the original explorer of the cave, finally 
 crossed it on a cedar sapling, but not without great 
 danger. 
 
 This pit is one of three, the other two being 
 Scylla and Charybdis, well-named and in the rela- 
 tion to each other of those celebrated dangers of 
 mythologic fame. These two pits are not to be 
 seen by visitors, their approach being by a devious 
 and dangerous passage which opens from River 
 

 
 MARTHA WASHINGTON'S STATUE 
 
Hall, nearly a mile distant. But of all the pits 
 which the visitor sees, that called Mammoth Dome 
 is the largest and most impressive. From top to 
 bottom the distance is nearly two hundred and 
 eighty feet; while at the end, the Ruins of Karnak, 
 ^,^^^. . formerly called the Egyp- 
 
 tian Temples, stand out 
 in bold relief. These 
 giant columns indeed 
 closely resemble the 
 works of art of some 
 long-lost underground 
 race, and it does not 
 require a very vivid 
 imagination to see the 
 great recesses and 
 storied walls the scene 
 weird activity or to 
 imagine them peopled with myriads of gnomes 
 and sprites upon whose labors the visitor is an 
 unwelcome intruder. The Mammoth Dome should 
 be visited by every person who desires to see 
 water at work and completing a task begun 
 away back in earth's history. The shadows on 
 the walls, fitfully moving with change of light and 
 
varying ever as the 
 onlooker moves, seem 
 alive, and the eternal 
 gloom, dispelled but 
 little by the glare of 
 lamps, recalls scenes 
 made famous by the 
 pencil of the immortal 
 Dore, first voiced by Dante : 
 
 ECHO RIVBr' 
 
 "There do the hideous harpies make their nests, 
 Who chased the Trojans from the Strophades, 
 With sad announcement of impending doom; 
 Broad wings have they, and necks and faces human, 
 And feet with claws, and their great bellies fledged." 
 
 But why attempt the impossible? Why attempt 
 to paint a scene beyond the skill of any? Alone, 
 in such a place, one sees only spirit life and un- 
 canny forms; sees only the deformed and uncouth, 
 the strange and chimerical. The very stillness be- 
 comes eloquent and the blackness populous; the 
 dripping of water chants a thousand poems. **0 
 Night and Solitude! Ye are the peopled; the full of 
 life!" 
 
MAAIMOTH CAVE IS NEAR THE MAIN LINE OF THE LOUISVILLE & NASHVILLt 
 RAILROAD. 90 MILES SOUTH OF LOUISVILLE. KY. BRANCH 
 RAILROAD DIRECT TO THE CAVE FROM 
 GLASGOW JUNCTION. 
 
 STOP-OVER ALLOWED ON ALL TICKETS WITHIN THEIR LIMITS. AND ON 
 
 ALL TICKETS THE DESTINATION OF WHICH IS A POINT ON THE 
 
 LOUISVILLE jk NASHVILLE RAILROAD REGARDLESS 
 
 OF LIMIT. 
 
 C. L. STONE. Genl Pass. Agent, 
 
 Louisville, Ky 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 lllliiliiiiil 
 
 014 612 345 4 
 
 mm 
 
/Ma Cjiii 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 612 345 4 ^