1~2 Mammoth Gave of Kentucky, 



daring, lurid, and terrific as the throat of the infernal pool. 

 Descending from the eminence by a ladder of about twenty 

 feet, we find ourselves among piles of gigantic rocks ; and 

 one of the most picturesque sights in the world is to see a 

 file of men and women passing along these wild and scraggy 

 paths, moving slowly — slowly, that their lamps may have 

 time to illuminate their sky-like ceiling and gigantic walls, 

 disappearing behind high cliffs — sinking into ravines — their 

 lights shining upward through fissures in the rocks — then, 

 suddenly emerging from some abrupt angle, standing in the 

 bright gleam of their lights, relieved by the towering black 

 masses around them. As you pass along, you hear the roar 

 of invisible waterfalls ; and at the foot of the slope, the 

 River Styx lies before you, deep and black, overarched with 

 rocks. Across, or rather down, these unearthly waters, the 

 guide can convey but four passengers at once. The lamps 

 are fastened to the prow, the images of which are reflected 

 in the dismal pool. If you are impatient of delay or eager 

 for new adventure, you can leave your companions lingering 

 about the shore, and cross the Styx by a dangerous bridge 

 of precipices overhead. In order to do this, you must ascend 

 a steep cliff and enter a cave above, over three hundred yards 

 long, from the egress of which you find yourself on the bank 

 of the river, eighty feet above its surface, commanding a view 

 of those in the boat, and those waiting on the shore. Seen 

 from the heights, the lamps in the canoe glare like fiery eye- 

 balls ; and the passengers sitting there, so hushed and mo- 

 tionless, look like shadows. The scene is so strangely 

 funereal and spectral, that it seems as if the Greeks must 

 have witnessed it before they imagined Charon conveying 

 ghosts to the dim regions of Pluto. 



The Mammoth Cave is said to be explored to the distance 

 of ten miles, without reaching its termination, whilst the 

 aggregate width of all the branches is over forty miles ! 

 Next to Niagara, it is the wonder of nature in the Western 

 World, or perhaps throughout all her domains. 



