THE MAMMOTH CAVE. oT 
From data that we have obtained from 
various sources, we learn that the “ Bottomlegs 
Pit” was not crossed, nor the great curiosities 
beyond dreamed of, for about thirty years after 
what is called the “Main Cave” had been. 
explored. Indeed, it is known that many 
avenues, with their hidden treasures, have not 
_to the present day been trodden by mortal 
footsteps. So much has already been explored 
that curiosity appears to be satiated. 
It is‘said that about one hundred and fifty 
miles of travel is required to visit the parts of — 
the Cave that have already been traversed; and 
we were informed by the guides that avenues 
were known to them which would probably 
increase the extent of travel to two hundred 
miles.* 
* Since the foregoing was penned, we have been informed by 
the proprietor of the Cave Hotel, Mr. L. J. Proctor, in a letter 
dated March 12, 1870, that ‘Two years ago three of the guides 
at the Cave, Messrs. F. M. De Monbrum and Charles and A. Mer- 
ideth, discovered a new avenue in the Mammoth Cave, branching 
off from the Pass of El Ghor, just beyond Ole Bull’s Concert 
Room. They first entered a narrow crevice, through which they 
passed some seventy yards, when they entered a large cave, 
which they explored for many miles, and from which many 
branching avenues led off, which they did not explore. They de- 
scribe this newly-discovered avenue as extremely grand, and in 
many places beautiful. They crossed a large, and as yet unex- 
