cxl 
life of WILSON. 
Pevvee 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 continued 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 subter- 
ranean 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, ex- 
tending under the bed of the Green river. The entrance to these 
caves generally commences at the bottom of a sinkhole ; and many 
of them are used by the inhabitants as cellars 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 proprietor, who carried the light. At first 
the darkness was so intense that I could scarcely see a few feet be- 
yond the circumference of the candle; but, after being in for five 
or six minutes, the objects around me began to make their appear- 
ance more distinctly. The bottom, for fifteen or twenty yards at 
first, was so irregular that we had constantly to climb ovei laige 
masses of wet and slippery rocks ; the roof rose in many places to 
the height of twenty or thirty feet, presenting all the most irregular 
projections of surface, and hanging in gloomy and silent horror. 
We passed numerous chambers, or ofifsetts, which we did not ex- 
plore ; and after three hours wandering in these profound regions 
of glooms and silence, the particulars of which would detain me too 
long, I emerged with a handkerchief filled with bats, including one 
which I have never seen described; and a number of extraordinaiy 
insects of the Gryllus tribe, with antennae upwards of six inches 
long, and which I am persuaded had never before seen the light 
of day, as they fled from it with seeming terror, and I believe were 
as blind in it as their companions the bats. Great quantities of 
