138 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



of Blue River exceptionally good, make it a most 

 inviting spot for a summer's outing. 



Around the hotel, situated close to the cave on a 

 commanding eminence in a natural wooded grove, 

 grow numerous forms of plant life which are stran- 

 gers to central and northern Indiana, while in the cave 

 dwell many sightless animals whose habits of life are 

 yet unknown ; so that the botanist and zoologist may 

 add to the study of the cavern itself the pursuit of 

 their favorite subjects. 



The first published account of Wyandotte Cave was 

 probably in 1833, in "Flint's Geography of the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley," as follows: "Like Alabama and 

 Tennessee, Indiana abounds with subterranean won- 

 ders in the form of caves. Many have been explored 

 and some of them have been described. One of them 

 is extensively known in the western country by the 

 name of ' the Epsom Salts Cave.' 



"It is not very far from Jeftersonville. When first 

 discovered the salts were represented as being some 

 inches deep on the floor. The interior of this cave 

 possesses the usual domes and chambers of extensive 

 caverns, through which the visitant gropes a distance 

 of a mile and a quarter to the 'pillar,' which is a splen- 

 did column, fifteen feet in diameter and twenty -five 

 feet high, regularly reeded from top to bottom. Near 

 it are smaller pillars of the same appearance. 



" The salt in question is sometimes found in lumps 

 varying from one to ten pounds. The floors and 

 walls are covered with it in the form of a frost, which, 

 when removed, is speedily reproduced. The earth 

 yields from four to twenty pounds to the bushel, and 



