130 THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 
piercing scream of the panther even then was a 
sound of rapture to his ear. He was ever in 
search of natural curiosities, and he discovered 
and explored caves previously unknown, in all 
probability, to any man of our generation, and 
in one of them he found immense numbers of 
human bones that seemed to him to have be- 
longed to a different order of beings from any 
now upon our continent. He subsequently be- 
came as familiar with the Mammoth Cave as 
the best of its guides. An adventure of his in 
that subterranean realm attracted much atten- 
tion four years ago. An account of it was pub- 
lished in our columns, and, as we have often been 
requested to republish it, we will do so now: 
‘¢ TERRIFIC ADVENTURE IN THE MAmMoTH CAVE. 
—At the supposed end of what has always been 
considered the longest avenue in the Mammoth 
Cave, nine miles from its entrance, there is a 
pit, dark and deep and terrible, known as the 
Maelstrom. Tens of thousands have gazed into 
it with awe while Bengal-lights were thrown 
down to make its fearful depths visible, but none 
had ever the daring to explore it. The cele- 
brated guide Stephen, who was deemed insen- 
sible to fear, was offered six hundred dollars by 
the proprietors of the Cave if he would descend 
