52 



in numerous copies of his guide book, itself a separately bound excerpt from the 

 larger volume, with slight changes in the later editions. This map is chiefly that 

 of Bishop; all the main features of Bishop's map appear and few additional facts. 

 For the older portion of the cave, like Bishop's map, this one follows very closely 

 the original work of Lee. No mention is made of these sources, and Doctor Hovey 

 did not himself map any part of this great cave except Ganter's Avenue. Some 

 measurements of separate localities were made by him, but beyond this his map has 

 "verylittleoriginal matter or matter not already known. It is, however, a useful one, 

 "for more names to localities appear on this map than on any other, many of which 

 have been happily bestowed by Hovey who, in these matters, has appreciated the 

 ~" eternal fitness of things." In his names record is often made of the pioneers of 

 ^iiscovery in the cave ; in other cases he has happily made allusions to mythologic 

 -characters to which is added the uncanny suggestiveness of the gloom of the un- 

 derground world. 



The latest map of the cave is still unpublished, but will appear within a few 

 months. In it the attempt will be made to correct the errors of the older maps 

 and to add to them as wholes the newly discovered portions or those portions of 

 "which little has hitherto been known. But when this map shall have appeared 

 it will demonstrate the need of accurate surveys, which are never likely to be made, 

 rather than add very greatly to our knowledge of the cave. Still, errors of others 

 being corrected, the golden goal of exact knowledge will be brought a very little 

 aiearer. 



li is well known that the main avenues of the cave have been "run" bycom- 

 tpetent engineers, and they have been platted on the surface, in part at least. This 

 was done in the attempt to learn whether any of the more valuable parts of the cave 

 extended beyond the limits of the present "cave estate." No one has beeu al- 

 lowed to see these plats except those who are directly interested. The closeness 

 with which this information is kept argues for the fact that without doubt the 

 cavern extends beyond the estate. Numerous attempts have been made to find 

 other entrances than the one on the estate ; that they exist is proven by the free 

 'circulation of the air and the presence, in places miles from the well-known 

 month, of seeds and leaves, sticks and bark, from the surface, and oftentimes in a 

 fairly fresh condition. But these entrances are small and not likely to ever prove 

 valuable to others if found. It is this fear of attempts to enter the property of 

 the present estate that operates to make impossible, at present, a cartog'raph which 

 exhibits Mammoth Cave in its true relations to the region in which it is situated. 



