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 



