THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 133 
site formations as pure and white as virgin snow. 
Making himself heard, with great effort, by his 
friends, he at length asked them to pull him 
partly up, intending to stop on the way and 
explore a cave that he had observed opening 
about forty feet above the bottom of the pit. 
‘“ Reaching the mouth of the cave, he swung 
himself with much exertion into it, and, holding 
the end of the rope in his hand, he incautiously 
let it go, and it swung out apparently beyond 
his reach. The situation was a fearful one, and 
his friends above could do nothing for him. 
Soon, however, he made a hook of tue end of 
his lamp, and, by extending himself as far over 
the verge as possible without falling, he suc- 
ceeded in securing the rope. Fastening it to a 
rock, he followed the avenue one hundred and 
fifty or two hundred yards to a point where he 
found it blocked by an impassable avalanche of 
rock and earth. Returning to the mouth of 
this cave, he beheld an almost exactly similar 
mouth of another on the opposite side of the pit, 
but not being able to swing himself into it, he 
refastened the rope around his body, suspended 
himself again over the abyss, and shouted to his 
friends to raise him to the top. The pull was 
an exceedingly severe one, and the rope, being 
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