Chapter 28

BEAUTIFUL BOW VALLEY.—One of the peculiarly attractive and picturesquely exquisite portions of British America is mountain-begirted Bow Valley, 500 miles east of Vancouver, along the Canadian Pacific Railway line. The region is wondrously diversified and marvelously beautiful, holding within its compass not only a valley of paradisaic charms, but also mountains of startling grandeur, with crystalline lakes reposing on their bosoms, range breaking beyond range, snowy crests gleaming with sunlight splendors, forests tinted with softest hues, streams that murmur and cascades that roar, while the valley is aflame with the richest colorings of daisies, buttercups, bluebells, heather, wild pinks, anemones, and brianthus, a symphony of beauty, a colossal bouquet decorating the marriage-bed of nature.

GIANT’S COFFIN, MAMMOTH CAVE, KENTUCKY.—This remarkable and weird curiosity is composed of a huge block of stone forty feet long by twenty wide, and when viewed from a certain angle the resemblance to a funeral casket is so great that, even if attention were not called to it, visitors would hardly fail to be a little shocked by the uncanny sight. Standing within its presence it is almost impossible to divest one’s self of the belief that he is gazing upon the last resting-place of some tremendous giant, the guardian genius, perhaps, of this lugubrious subterranean abode; and it is with a sigh of relief that we pass on to more inspiring and splendid scenery.

The Maelstrom, in Croghan’s Hall, is one of the deepest and most awful-appearing pits yet discovered, and until 1859 no one had ever ventured to explore its dark recesses. It is at a remote point in the Cave and seldom visited, because the way is beset with obstacles, while the sight is neither reassuring nor compensating. A son of George D. Prentice, however, braved the dangers of the pit by permitting some of his friends to lower him 190 feet by a rope to the bottom, but his experience was of little value, because he found nothing of interest to reward him for the trouble. Some pretty stalactites are near this pit, and also in Fairy Grotto, but in the deeper recesses there is a remarkable absence of these formations. Indeed, considering the character and extent of Mammoth Cave, its poverty of stalactitic ornamentation is surprising. On the other hand, it contains an unexampled wealth of crystals of endless variety and incomparable beauty. Besides the sparkling vault of the Star Chamber, which is 300 feet long and 80 feet high, there are halls canopied by fleecy clouds, or studded by mimic snow-balls, and others displaying various grotesque resemblances on the walls and ceilings. Cleveland’s Cabinet, and Marion’s Avenue, each a mile long, are adorned by myriads of gypsum rosettes and curiously twisted crystals called “oulopholites.” These cave-flowers are unfolded by pressure, like a sheaf of wheat forced through a tight binding. This charming embellishment of clusters and garlands is frequently seen curling outward, like roses, composing petrified bouquets that cover the snowy arches.

This curious feature is even more marked by the stalactites in Mary’s Vineyard, where they appear in the form of an aggregation of spherical prominences, resembling clusters of grapes. Other chambers are drifted with snowy crystals of sulphate of magnesia, and the ceilings are so thickly covered with their efflorescence that a sharp concussion of the air will cause them to fall like flakes in a snow-storm.

Many small rooms and tortuous paths, where danger lies, are avoided as much as possible; but even on the regular routes through the Cave some disagreeable experiences are inevitable, while about the deep pits peril is always present. The one now known as the Bottomless Pit was for many years a barrier to all further exploration, and until a substantial wooden bridge was built across it. Long before the shaft had been cut as deep as now, the water flowed away by a channel gradually contracting until at a point called The Fat Man’s Misery the walls were only eighteen inches apart. The rocky sides are beautifully marked with waves and ripples, as if running water had been suddenly petrified. This winding-way conducts to River Hall, beyond which lie the crystalline gardens that have been described. It was formerly believed that if this narrow passage were closed, escape would be impossible; but a few years ago a tortuous fissure called the Cork-Screw was discovered, by means of which a good climber ascending a few hundred feet finally lands 1,000 yards from the mouth of the Cave, and cuts off nearly two miles.

The waters, entering through numerous domes and pits, and falling, during the rainy season, in cascades of great volume, are finally collected in River Hall, where they form several extensive lakes, or rivers, whose connection with Green River is known to be in two deep springs appearing under arches on its margin. Whenever there is a freshet in Green River the streams in the cave are joined in a continuous body of water, the rise sometimes being as much as sixty feet above the low-water mark. The subsidence within is less rapid than the rise; and the streams are impassable during a greater part of the year. They are usually navigable from May to October, and furnish exceedingly interesting as well as novel features of cave scenery. The largest body of water is called the Dead Sea, embraced within a basin formed by cliffs sixty feet high, above which a path has been made which leads to a stairway and thence to the River Styx, a body of water that is four hundred feet long and forty feet wide. Lake Lethe is the next water-basin, enclosed by walls ninety feet high, below which is a path that conducts to a pontoon at the neck of the lake. Thence a beach of the finest yellow sand extends for 500 yards to Echo River, the largest of all, being nearly one mile long, from 20 to 200 feet broad, and varying in depth from 10 to 40 feet. Two or three boats are placed on this Lethean or Stygian stream, in which visitors are taken from one end of the river to the other, and the trip is of such novelty that the remembrance of it is imperishable. To see the boats approaching, in the weird light of flickering torches, is like a vision of a spectral crew, funereal, sepulchral and almost horrific. The arch overhead is symmetrical but irregular in height, and is famous for its musical reverberations—not a distinct echo, for the repetitions are so rapid that they merge and become a prolongation of sound that continues for nearly half a minute. The long vault has a certain key-note of its own, which, when sounded, produces harmonies of almost incredible depth and sweetness.

THE BRIDAL ALTAR, MAMMOTH CAVE.—The Bridal Altar is one of the most magnificent spectacles of Mammoth Cave, with its frosted pillars of pearl-white and the convolutions of their magnificent pediments that may be likened to clouds in the sky of the cave. These vertical shafts or petrified columns are among the most surprising and beautiful features of cave scenery, and when brilliantly lighted they present a scene of splendor surpassing the utmost stretch of the imagination. Let us not, therefore, wonder that this is a favorite resort for young married people, who come hither in the rosy blush of their wedding dawn to plight the faith that makes them one for time and eternity.

In these Plutonian regions of perpetual night, where vegetation is only imaged by petrified efflorescence, many creatures find a congenial abode, and become so accustomed to this dark habitat that they cannot live elsewhere. Of the twenty-eight different species here found, the most remarkable are a blind and wingless grasshopper with extremely long antennae; a blind and colorless cray-fish, and a blind fish which grows to the length of six inches. These fish possess the additional curiosity of being viviparous, or producing their young in a living state, instead of by eggs. Occasionally other fish are caught in the running streams of the Cave which are identical with species common in Green River, thus proving the subterranean connection that exists between that river and the Cave streams.

The strongly marked divergence of these blind creatures from those found on the outside led Agassiz to believe that they were specially created for the limits within which they dwell; but the opinion now generally held is that they are modifications of allied species existing in the sunlight, and that their peculiarities are to be accounted for on the principles of evolution—the process of change being accelerated, or retarded, by their migration from the outer world to a region of silence and perpetual darkness.

Having concluded our examination of Mammoth Cave, we departed by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad for Louisville, at which city train was taken on the St. Louis Air Line for Wyandotte Cave, which was to be our last objective point in completing our extensive photographic tour of America. This very remarkable Cave, though not so generally known as Luray or Mammoth, is about ten miles south of the Louisville and St. Louis Air Line, in Crawford county, Indiana, and is only five miles from the Ohio River. We reached the Cave by way of Milltown, thence to Corydon, and from that point by private conveyance a distance of eleven miles. Entrance to the Cave is by way of a large opening in a hillside, the aperture being about six feet high and twenty feet wide, through which there is always a strong circulation of air like that noted at the mouth of Mammoth Cave, while the temperature is likewise uniformly 54° Fahrenheit. A short avenue leads into a chamber known as Fanueil Hall, whose dimensions are 200 feet long, 50 feet wide and 25 feet high; thence the route conducts through Twilight Hall into Columbian Arch, which resembles a railroad tunnel, so symmetrical is the excavation. Washington Avenue is next entered, which, followed, brings the visitor to Banditti Hall, where the ceiling rises to an immense height, and the walls are jagged, as is the floor, with protruding rocks, so that this chamber is both forbidding in appearance and difficult to traverse. At this point the main gallery branches, one avenue leading to what is known as the Old Cave, and the other conducting by a longer route to more interesting apartments than those before passed. Through a narrow crevice the visitor gains a room called the Bats’ Lodge, and beyond this is Rugged Mountain, which is in the center of a circular room, where Epsom salts of sparkling purity and vast quantities of gypsum in efflorescent beauty cover the arched vault. Seen under torch-light the effect is indescribably magnificent, and is the first striking intimation which the visitor receives of the extraordinary grandeur to which he will be presently introduced. Following the long route we cross a lovely sand-deposit known as the Plain, but find an abrupt termination of this level walk and are compelled to climb the rock-bestrewn Hill of Difficulty, then squeeze through a small passage-way from which we find present relief by emerging into Wallace’s Grand Dome, one of the most magnificent chambers, as well as the largest, in the Cave, being 245 feet high and 300 feet in diameter. In the center is Monument Mountain, a tremendous stalagmite formation above which is an immense dome beflowered with curling leaves of gypsum that bear a wondrous likeness to the foliage of the acanthus. At the apex of the mountain is a stalagmite one hundred and twenty feet in circumference, which has been broken by some force into three columns, which, viewed from the base, admirably counterfeit three monuments, or ghosts clad in robes of gleaming whiteness, from which fact the chamber takes its name. Visitors are usually treated to a superbly grand sight while examining the splendors of this hall, for the guide disposes his company about the base of the mountain, and ascending to the summit he extinguishes his torch in order to bring the visitors under the influence of dense darkness for a few moments. Suddenly the peak is lighted up with a dazzling splendor, as the guide touches off green, blue, red and orange lights, bathing the chamber in a sea of flaming beauty and bejewelling its lofty arch until Aladdin’s Cave of our imagination is reproduced.

THE RIVER STYX, MAMMOTH CAVE, KENTUCKY.—Some idea of the grandeur of the waterways of Mammoth Cave will be obtained from the following description: The largest body of water is called the Dead Sea, embraced within a basin formed by cliffs sixty feet high, above which a path has been made leading to a stairway and thence to the River Styx, which is forty feet wide and four hundred long. Lake Lethe is the next water-basin, enclosed by walls ninety feet high, below which is a path that conducts to a pontoon at the neck of the lake. Thence a beach of the finest yellow sand extends for five hundred yards to Echo River, the largest of all, being nearly one mile long, from twenty to two hundred feet broad, and varying in depth from ten to forty feet. Two or three boats ply this Stygian stream, in which visitors are taken from one end to the other, and the trip is of such novelty that the remembrance of it is imperishable.

ENTRANCE TO PILLARED PALACE, WYANDOTTE CAVE.—There are many grand and splendid halls in Wyandotte Cave, of which the most attractive is Pillared Palace, in which gypsum and stalactites occur in the most charming and imposing forms. This hall is particularly entrancing in its sumptuous and architecturally beautiful decorations. It is from five to six feet high, forty or fifty wide and several hundred long. The ceiling is a complete fringe-work of stalactites, while the floor is as thickly set with stalagmites, many of which uniting with the former produce pillars of the grandest proportions, beautiful beyond the power of imagination to describe. Drapery of every conceivable style is seen in the utmost profusion, some of it transparent as crystal and resonant as a silver bell when struck with a metal substance.

THE THRONE, WYANDOTTE CAVE.—Although less celebrated than Mammoth or Luray Caves, Wyandotte fully equals them in many of its wondrous and beautiful formations. The Throne and the hall in which it is located are truly marvels of Nature’s handiwork. Imagine great bunches of white, delicate, branching coral, twisting, curling and interlacing itself, serpent-like, into every conceivable fantastic shape, and you have only a faint idea of the truly extraordinary scenery of this glorious temple erected by Nature. In all directions are to be seen fantastic examples of stalactite formations, and marvelous decorations of whitest gypsum. Huge rocks, overhung by galleries of creamy stalactites, with vermicular tubes intertwined, while frozen cataracts and vine-like pendent forms cluster along the walls in a profusion almost incredible.

Beyond Wallace’s Dome there are a hundred halls of great magnificence, in nearly all of which are seen fantastic examples of stalactite formations, and marvelous decorations of whitest gypsum, Milroy’s Temple being a very exhibition-room of these exquisite curiosities: huge rocks, overhung by galleries of creamy stalactites, vermicular tubes intertwined, frozen cataracts and vine-like pendant forms of stalactites, cluster along the walls in a profusion almost incredible. Imagine great masses of white delicate branching coral, twisting, curling and interlacing itself, serpent-like, into every conceivable fantastic shape, and you have only a faint idea of the truly extraordinary scenery of this glorious temple erected by nature. Other halls of almost rival splendor are known as Snowy Cliffs, Frosted Rocks, Fairy Palace, Beauty’s Bower, The Throne, and Pillared Palace, in all of which gypsum and stalactites occur in the most charming and imposing forms. Pillared Palace is particularly entrancing in its sumptuous and architecturally beautiful decorations. It is from five to six feet high, forty or fifty feet wide and several hundred feet long. Its ceiling is a complete fringe-work of stalactites, while its floor is as thickly set with stalagmites, many of which latter unite with the former, making the grandest pillars. Drapery of every conceivable style may be seen, some of which is as transparent as crystal and rings like a silver bell when exposed to a light blow. After Pillared Palace comes the Palace of the Genii, which for delicate formations even excels the former. Here are found stalactites of every conceivable form, many of them as white as if they were made of sugar or whitest marble.

Passing through Fairy Grotto, Neptune’s Retreat, and Hermit’s Cell, the visitor enters a larger chamber invested with the same charming ornamentation, and in the center is a rich canopy of stalactite overhanging a stalagmite which has been likened by some imaginative person to a chair richly upholstered. This is called the Throne, a designation appropriate enough, for it is one of the most royally beautiful curiosities in the Cave, as the illustration will show.

That portion known as the Old Cave, while scarcely so interesting as the galleries and vaults of the long route, contains several halls of much interest and one, called the Senate Chamber, which rivals Wallace’s Dome. In the center of this room stands a mountain whose top is covered many feet deep with stalactite formations, upon which stands the Pillar of the Constitution. This is an immense stalagmite measuring seventy-five feet in circumference and thirty feet high, reaching from the top of the mountain to the ceiling above, fluted and carved after a manner that would have put to shame the most extravagant architecture of Rome’s most halcyon days. The world has not yet produced, so far as civilized man knows, anything of the kind to equal it. A writer says of it:

“Before us arose a considerable hill, upon the top of which stood, like a column supporting the ceiling, a vast stalagmite like an immense spectral-looking iceberg looming up before us, appearing as though it had just arisen from the foaming waves of the ocean, on a dark and foggy night. In the uncertain light of our lamps it presented an appearance grand, if not appalling; but when the Drummond light had been set off, all this changed to the most unearthly beauty. The ceiling above, with its long fringes of stalactites, came out to view, and the great pillar could be seen in all its grandeur and beauty.”

Beyond this is Pluto’s Ravine, where stands Stallasso’s Monument, a large white stalagmite, marked all over with pencil inscriptions, some of them sixty years old, composing an autograph album of wonderful curiosity, containing hundreds of names which to fame are otherwise unknown, and effusions of doggerel poets whose reputations, alas, will no doubt be forever restricted to the limits of this cave chamber. A short distance beyond Pluto’s Ravine is the termination of this section of the Cave, and from this point return is made to the open air. A ramble among the subterranean glories and petrified splendors of Wyandotte Cave was a fitting conclusion to one of the most interesting tours that was ever taken through the picturesque regions of our country; a tour affording so much information, pleasure, adventure, and profit, that the remembrance must forever remain a source of intense satisfaction and delight. It was with feelings of deep regret that we separated after the completion of our work, and each returned to his respective home, to take up anew the old labor which we had laid down when the start was made upon our long journey. During the trip our photographers took five thousand pictures; many of these were taken under unfavorable conditions, and upon development were found unworthy of reproduction. Many others were excellent and well deserving to rank with those which we have here used, but there is a limit to all things, and ours does not exceed the space occupied by the 520 odd views which we have presented; these, however, are fairly representative of the incomparable scenery that charmingly diversifies our native land, a land kissed by the lips of liberty, bounty, and beauty, and blessed with an amplitude of powers, under the exercise of which the largest freedom, benefits and sovereign rights are obtained for the whole people.

[The End.]

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