MAMMOTH CAVE 



3617 



MAN 



Various charges, according to the size of the 

 visiting party, are made for the services of the 

 guides ; in large parties of twenty-five each one 

 pays a dollar, while in small parties the fee may 

 be three dollars for each person. A picturesque 

 old hotel stands near by for the accommodation 

 of tourists. 



A Trip into the Cave. From a frowning 

 ledge above the entrance a cascade of water 

 leaps down, disappearing among the rocks with- 

 out leaving any sign of a stream. Inside of the 

 cave the air is cool and pure, the temperature 



VIOLET CITY IN MAMMOTH CAVE 

 being about 54 F. in both summer and winter. 

 Soon after passing the old saltpeter vats, the 

 walks expand until the visitor enters the Ro- 

 tunda, the first great vaulted room of the cave, 

 from which a network of passageways leads off 

 in every direction into vaulted chambers, some 

 of which have wonderful stalactite and stalag- 

 mite formations (see STALACTITE AND STALAG- 

 MITE) . The largest room, Chief City, so named 

 because of the great number of Indian relics 

 found in it, has an area of two acres, and a roof 

 125 feet high. In this room Indians formerly 

 held their councils. However, the most beauti- 

 ful section of the cave, Violet City, which was 

 discovered in 1908 and named after the wife 

 of one of the owners, is much smaller than 

 Chief City, being 250 feet long and 125 feet 

 wide, but it contains hundreds of most remark- 

 able stalactites of onyx, varying in size from 

 minute needles to those several feet in length. 

 One group is so attuned that, if struck by some 

 hard substance, the tones resemble those of a 

 chime of bells, and simple tunes can easily be 

 played on them. 



In Gothic avenue are other stalactites of re- 

 markable interest, such as those at the Bridal 

 Altar, where four columns eight feet high have 

 formed by the union of stalactites and stalag- 

 mites. A place of special interest is Star Cham- 

 227 



ber, whose ceiling of black manganese is stud- 

 ded with innumerable crystals of snowy gyp- 

 sum, which resemble stars in the artificial light 

 thrown upon them by the guides. When one 

 realizes that it takes five years to form a de- 

 posit the thickness of a wafer upon a stalactite, 

 he finds it almost overwhelming to estimate the 

 number of centuries during which this natural 

 wonder of the world has been forming. E.G. 



Consult Hovey's Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, 

 and his Celebrated American Caverns. 



MAN, the most highly-organized animal in 

 the scale of nature, belongs to the first order 

 of mammalia (see MAMMALS). This order is 

 called primates (from the Latin primus, mean- 

 ing first). Man is superior to all other animals 

 particularly in that he has a reasoning mind 

 and in that he speaks an intelligible language 

 with which he can impart his thoughts readily. 

 These powers are not possessed by any other 

 animal. This highest group of animals includes, 

 besides man, apes and monkeys. In mentality, 

 man ranks far above gorillas, chimpanzees and 

 orang-utans, the highest order of apes. Phys- 

 ically, man differs from other animals of the 

 same class in that he walks erect; the feet are 

 not adapted to grasping or seizing, the teeth 

 are close together, and the bones of the face 

 project downward rather than outward and are 

 below the brain. The most marked difference, 

 however, is the larger cranial capacity and the 

 much greater volume of the human brain. 



Evolution of Man. Excavations made in 

 caverns in England and on the continent of 

 Europe show distinct traces of man which give 

 him claim to a race history covering many 

 thousands of years. Stone implements have 

 been found with but little variety of form, 

 rudely chipped into shape and neither ground 

 nor polished. Those of a later period are pol- 

 ished or ground to a sharp edge. These objects 

 belong to the Stone Age, and scientists have 

 been able to form a fairly clear idea of man's 

 mode of life and progress from these deposits. 

 It is supposed that the race of man has existed 

 since the Glacial Period (which see), but how 

 long before the Glacial Period mankind lived, 

 and how the race originated and became dis- 

 tributed over the earth, are questions which 

 scientists have been unable to answer. The 

 Darwinian theory is that all present races origi- 

 nated from one parent stock and that man is 

 the direct descendant of some form of anthro- 

 poid (resembling man) ape (see EVOLUTION). 

 Some who accept the Darwinian theory believe 

 that the Creator especially endowed the hu- 



