THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 191 
rate in its statements, so far as their nature is 
susceptible of positive demonstration. 
The most recent, and best authenticated in- 
formation we have been able to find upon the 
subject of the Cave Mummies, is contained in a 
letter from Mr. Proctor, the present proprietor 
of the hotel, dated March 12, 1870. He says 
(in reply to our inquiries) : 
“There was a mummy found in the Mammoth 
Cave, and one in Short Cave, a cave in the 
neighborhood of the Mammoth. The one in 
Mammoth Cave was found .. in the Gothic 
Avenue, in 1815, by Mr. Ward; of Marietta, 
Ohio, and was sent to the Antiquarian Society 
of Worcester, Massachusetts, and is now there, — 
as I learn by a letter of the Secretary of the 
Society ; but is in a dilapidated condition. ‘The 
one found in the Short Cave was taken and 
placed in the Museum at Cincinnati, and was 
burnt with that establishment many years ago. 
I have in my possession a photograph of the one 
taken out of the Gothic Avenue by Mr. Ward, 
in 1815.” 
In concluding our remarks on this subject, we 
emphatically agree with the author of “Rambles 
of a Visitor,” etc. when he says, “The removal 
of those mummies from the place in which they 
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