Mam moth Cave of Ken tuchy . 119 



crater of Kilauea. Its height above the sea is about 7000 

 feet. It has formed a stream, winding down the mountain 

 side, with several branches 30 or 40 miles long, from one- 

 fourth to two miles broad, having a depth, in some places, of 

 200 or 300 feet. 



Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. 

 [We extract the following graphic account of the Mam- 

 moth Cave of Kentucky from Professor J. D. B. De Bow's 

 " Industrial Resources, &c. of the Southern and Western 

 American States. 1 '] 



In Edmonson County is that extraordinary curiosity, the 

 Mammoth Cave. It is situated midway between Louisville 

 and Nashville, and is a fashionable place of resort. The 

 cave is approached through a romantic shade. At the en- 

 trance is a rush of cold air. A descent of thirty feet by stone 

 steps, and an advance of one hundred feet inwards, brings 

 the visitor to the door, in a solid stone wall which blocks up 

 the entrance of the cave. A narrow passage leads to the 

 great vestibule or antechamber, an oval hall, 200 by 150 

 feet, and 50 feet high. Two passages of 100 feet width 

 open into it, and the whole is supported without a single 

 column. This chamber was used by the races of yore as a 

 cemetery, judging from the bones of gigantic size which are 

 discovered. 



" Far up, a hundred feet above your head, you catch a 

 fitful glimpse of a dark gray ceiling rolling dimly away like 

 a cloud, and heavy buttresses, apparently bending under the 

 superincumbent weight, project their enormous masses from 

 the shadowy wall. The scene is vast, solemn, and awful. 

 A profound silence, gloomy, still, and breathless, reigns un- 

 broken by even a sigh of air, or the echo of a drop of water 

 falling from the roof. You can hear the throbbings of your 

 heart, and the mind is oppressed with a sense of vastness, 

 and solitude, and grandeur undescribable." In Audubon 

 Avenue, leading from the hall, is a deep well of pure spring 

 water. It is surrounded by stalagmite columns from the 

 floor to the roof. The Little Bat Room contains a pit 280 



