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project it on the surface in order to determine its relations to the topography of 

 the region in which it is located. There have been but few attempts to so de- 

 lineate its hundreds of ramifications that the visitor may know his whereabouts 

 by reference to surface features. These are commonly conjectural; the guides 

 profess to have, and for the most part are honest, but little knowledge of the rela- 

 tions of the outdoor topography to that of the avenues and chambers of the cave. 

 The liberal management of the present Superintendent, Mr. Henry C. Ganter, 

 extended to the writer in a hundred different ways the most complete opportuni- 

 ties to examine and study the cave in the usually inaccessible localities as well as 

 those commonly visited. Measurements and compass work was permitted within 

 the cave but the line was drawn when surface work was planned or attempted. 

 Courtesy freely extended must be regarded, and while the results attained are not 

 of the most exact kind, nearly four years of exploration have given a better idea 

 of its surface relations and internal ramifications than could otherwise have been 

 possible. 



The interests of the present owners are as jealously guarded as ever, and in 

 this communication, therefore, I shall not violate any confidence which has been 

 vouched to me. Nevertheless, I can not refrain from placing on record, in this 

 manner, my firm belief that a survey which has been made ought to be projected 

 in map form and given to the world of science. Only good could result to all the 

 interests involved should an accurate knowledge of the cavern's relations to the 

 surface be made public. Such information would be invaluable to one who 

 wishes to know the great cavern as a geological entity. Perhaps, as the years 

 roll by, wiser counsels will prevail and the world will eventually know Mammoth 

 Cave in all its ramifications and will see them represented on a map which will 

 also show their relations to the surface. For the present it is my purpose to give 

 a history of the several published maps, and the manner in which they have been 

 prepared, to show how diflicult has been the process of evolving the map and to 

 emphasize the present need of a cartograph which shall exhibit the cave as it is. 



Mammoth Cave was discovered through an accident of the chase in the year 

 1809 by one Hutchins, a hunter who, tradition says, traced a wounded bear to the 

 entrance, then quite hidden in a dense growth of underbrush and fallen trees. It 

 would be diflScult to imagine a more rough and wild region than is the countrv in 

 which this greatest of caverns is situated. Facing north, on the side of the Green 

 River Canyon, far away from the traveled routes of the olden time, accident only 

 could have brought it to view. If Hutchins ever really lived there now remains 

 no trace of him beyond the tradition of discovery; none of his kith or kin have 

 been dijcovcred in the region. Perhaps with this single act to make him forever 



