LIFE OF WILSON. 



from some unknown cause, the ground had been undermined) 

 and had fallen in, in innumerable places, forming regular, 

 funnel-shaped, concavities of all dimensions, from twenty feet 

 in diameter, and six feet in depth, to five hundred by fifty, 

 the surface or verdure generally unbroken. In some tracts 

 the surface was entirely destitute of trees, and the eye was pre- 

 sented with nothing but one general neighbourhood of these 

 concavities, or, as they are usually called, sink-holes. At the 

 centre, or bottom of some of these, openings had been made 

 for water. In several places these holes had broken in, on the 

 sides, and even middle of the road, to an unknown depth; pre- 

 senting their grim mouths as if to ewallow up the unwary tra- 

 veller. At the bottom of one of those declivities, at least fifty 

 feet below the general level, a large rivulet of pure water issu- 

 ed at once from the mouth of a cave about twelve feet wide 

 and seven high. A number of very singular sweet smelling 

 lichens grew over the entrance, and a pewee had fixed her 

 nest, like a little sentry-box, on a projecting shelf of the rock 

 above the water. The height and dimensions of the cave con- 

 tinued the same as far as I waded in, which might be thirty or 

 forty yards, but the darkness became so great that I was forced 

 to return. I observed numbers of small fish sporting about, 

 and I doubt not but these abound even in its utmost subterra- 

 nean recesses. The whole of this country from Green to Red 

 river, is hollowed out into these enormous caves, one of which, 

 lately discovered in Warren county, about eight miles from 

 the Dripping Spring, has been explored for upwards of six 

 miles, extending under the bed of the Green river. The en- 

 trance to these caves generally commences at the bottom of a 

 sinkhole; and many of them are used by the inhabitants as cel- 

 lars or spring-houses, having generally a spring or brook of 

 clear water running through them. I descended into one of 

 these belonging to a Mr. Wood, accompanied by the proprie- 

 tor, who carried the light. At first the darkness was so intense 

 that I could scarcely see a few feet beyond the circumference 

 of the candle; but, after being in for five or six minutes, the 



