CHAPTER XII. 



THE MAELSTROM. — A PERILOUS ADVENTURE. 



The Maelstrom is a pit one hundred and 

 seventy-five feet deep and twenty wide. There 

 are avenues leading from the bottom, which 

 may be seen when a light is lowered into it, 

 but which have been, as yet, imperfectly ex- 

 plored. 



In connection with the Maelstrom, we cannot 

 refrain giving the graphic and thrilling account 

 of the adventure, already alluded to, of William 

 Courtland Prentice, son of George D. Prentice, 

 the venerable editor of the " Louisville Journal," 

 who was an officer in the Confederate Army, 

 and was killed in a raid on the banks of the Ohio 

 in 1862. In referring to his untimely death, the 

 "Journal" said : 



" He loved to seek the wildest and loneliest 

 portions of Kentucky. Repeatedly he went far 

 up among the bald and desolate crags of the 

 cliffs of Dix River, a region haunted by the 

 bear, the wild-cat, and the catamount. The 



.(129) 



