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 tlie e.id 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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