A Thousand-Mile Walk 



slope of several hundred yards. It seems like 

 a noble gateway to the birthplace of springs 

 and fountains and the dark treasuries of the 

 mineral kingdom. This cave is in a village 

 [of the same name] which it supplies with an 

 abundance of cold water, and cold air that 

 issues from its fern-clad lips. In hot weather 

 crowds of people sit about it in the shade of 

 the trees that guard it. This magnificent fan 

 is capable of cooling everybody in the town at 

 once. 



Those who live near lofty mountains may 

 climb to cool weather in a day or two, but the 

 overheated Kentuckians can find a patch of cool 

 climate in almost every glen in the State. The 

 villager who accompanied me said that Horse 

 Cave had never been fully explored, but that it 

 was several miles in length at least. He told me 

 that he had never been at Mammoth Cave 

 that it was not worth going ten miles to see, as 

 it was nothing but a hole in the ground, and I 

 found that his was no rare case. He was one 

 of the useful, practical men too wise to waste 

 f 10 1 



