m 



thorough knowledge of the subterranean windings, and to bo conversant also with the various 

 Indian traditions that attribute strange characteristics to the locality. 



As we gather round the camp-fire dinner he relates to our interi^reter in his native tongue tbe 

 various wonders of this underground world. The principal tradition runs that far within the cave 

 they come upon a new and grand world where a race of white people live having fair fields and 

 flowers, grassy lawns and cool fountains, with a vast profusion of magnificence ; that at one time 

 and another the Indians who have ventured within their confines have been taken and made pris- 

 oners, never being allowed to return to their tribes. In all during his remembrance six had been 

 so taken, and the various lodges mourned their loss and were desirous that some strong power like 

 our own should go to demand their return. 



The intense excitement of Anzip's imagination depicted so truthfully upon his swarthy features 

 was highly interesting, connected with his earnest and gesticulating manner. When we would 

 seem to doubt his re-asserted tale he was so terribly angry that, being afraid that he would abandon 

 us as guide, we gave tacit consent to his various narrations. Our old guide " Pogo " has told us 

 that within the memory of his mother, now very aged, two squaws had been taken upon entering 

 tbe cave, and, after an absence of four years, were sent back to the outer world, clad in the finest 

 of buckskiu, covered with hieroglyphics of the race who had for that time held them in bondage. 

 They professed to have been well treated and to have lived in a pleasant land. Again two more 

 had disappeared in the same way and were never heard from again. 



These and various other stories served to while away the twilight hour of the evening before 

 our visit to the above locality. Our party numbered twenty-three, well supplied with all necessa- 

 ries, such as candles, ropes, and arrangements for measuring and making a survey. We made an 

 early start, and were out of the light of day between six and seven hours. Our measurings made 

 the cave no longer than 3,000 feet, and for the last 1,000 feet the novelty had greatly worn away, when 

 we found ourselves crawling among the slime of some of the worst imaginable clayey sediment. 

 For 700 or 800 feet from the entrance everything was dry, the walls high, and several compart- 

 ments were quite interesting ; beyond that the humidity and mud commenced, and upon our return- 

 ing to the outer air our persons were more of a curiosity than the cave itself. 



Our guide got along very well for about two thousand feet ; then he commenced to get excited 

 and bewildered, constantly threading various labyrinths and returning to the place of departure. 

 This mistake could have happened to any one, only that we had left marks here and there easily 

 to be recognized. 



Every channel was closely examined, and all were found to exhaust in the solid wall of the 

 surrounding lime. One deep well was found that apparently extended downward for seventy feet, 

 at which point the lead sinker struck either the bottom or a projecting shoulder. 



A plan of the cave, as well as a view of the buttes in which it is situated, will appear in Vol. 

 I of the Survey Eeports, The sketch indicates that the subterranean opening extends as far as 

 these buttes, which are situated some three or four miles from the high peaks of the adjacent 

 Schell Creek range. 



We came out and returned to our camp, weary, covered with mud and slime, and with every 

 particle of romance eliminated from us, and to wonder that there ever could be a race so imagina- 

 tive and speculative in everything that is absurd as the Indian. 



ROUTE TAKEI^ BY EMIGRANTS PERISHING IN AND NEAR DEATH VALLEY. 



These parties, consisting of as many as forty wagons and one hundred and fifty souls, having 

 crossed the plains and reached Salt Lake, passed to the south and west through some of the Mor- 

 mon settlements until the vicinity of Meadow Valley was reached. From this point a Mormon, 

 named Bennett, was to guide them through to California. Passing to the westward of Meadow 

 Valley, a spring in the foot-hills of the continuation of the Schell Creek range, now known as Bennett's 

 Spring, was reached ; from this point the guide seemed to have no definite knowledge of the route, 

 and, bearing to the north and west, they wandered on a desert track until the sink of Sierra Creek 

 was reached. At this place Bennett entirely deserted them, leaving behind him no information, 

 and the parties themselves at a poor and sterile camp, while he returned to some of the settlements, 



