RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN OHIO. 649 



in shape except this one. They are of different lengths, but all are of the same 

 width and height. It is a romantic place for a picnic, and has been given up to 

 such rural festivities for years. Every corner of the cave has been thoroughly ex- 

 plored a thousand times, and the walls of the limestone chamber are covered with 

 the names of visitors and the dates of their visits. One, high up on the wall, reads, 

 " Von Brady, 1789." Von Brady was a pioneer Indian fighter and hunter, who 

 came here in advance of the " Ohio Company," in 1786. He was a daring man, 

 and sent many of the red men to the "happy hunting grounds." 



A few days ago a party of gentlemen visited the cave, provided with a plen- 

 tiful supply of lanters, ropes and tools, for the purpose of exploring the mysterious 

 well. The following were the gentlemen composing the party : Messrs. M. R. 

 Brittingham and Andrew Long, leading Manchester merchants ; Mr. Ernst T. 

 Kirker, one of the editors of the Manchester Independent ; S. Newton Griffith, 

 Esq., of the Adams County bar; Mr. Samuel Grooms, the owner of the cave, and 

 the Commercial correspondent. 



Arrived at the cave, it was thoroughly explored, and then a rope ladder, 100 

 feet long, with which we had provided ourselves before starting out, was lowered 

 down the well, and Mr. Kirker headed the exploration. When about fifty feet 

 from the top of the well he called out to the party above to come down. We has- 

 tily descended, to find our friend standing at the entrance of a narrow gallery, 

 leading out from the well. This gallery led back a considerable distance and got 

 wider, debocching finally into spacious chamber. 



The distance from the mouth of the well to the top of this gallery is forty- 

 seven feet. From the roof of the gallery to the floor is ten feet, six inches. At 

 its mouth it measures five feet, four inches in width. The gallery is straight, fifty 

 feet long, has a gradual descent, and where it enters the main chamber, twenty- 

 five feet in width. The chamber is 225 feet long, no feet wide, and twenty-four 

 feet high. The roof, floor and walls of both the gallery and chamber are smoothly 

 finished. In the center of this chamber is a sarcophagus and mausoleum combin- 

 ed. The mausoleum measures at its base fifty-five by thirty-five feet. It is of 

 simple though wonderful design, and carved out of solid rock. Its base is paneled 

 on all sides, those panels containing bas-reliefs which are supposed to illustrate the 

 four seasons of man's life — childhood, youth, manhood and old age. At the ends 

 of the bas-reliefs are tablets full of written characters, resembling the Hebraic, pre- 

 sumed to be memorials of the person or persons in whose honor the mausoleum 

 is erected. The carving on the bas-reliefs is of the most delicate description, and 

 fully equal to the Grecian school of sculpture. The limits of a newspaper article 

 will not suffice to fitly describe them. From the floor to the top of this base is six 

 feet. The base is hollowed out at the four corners, and these excavations are 

 covered with slabs of freestone, accurately fitted and so firmly cemented that a 

 cold-chisel struck with a heavy hammer made little or no impression on the cem- 

 ent. They are of uniform size, measuring five by twelve feet. In the center of 

 the mausoleum rises a couch, two feet, five inches in height, twelve feet in length, 



