29 
line stream issues from it, quite pe- 
rennial and emptying into the Elk- 
horn about 60 yards from the cave. 
Deer Lake belongs to the 5th Se- 
ries. It is one of the largest natu- 
ral ponds of Kentucky, where being 
rare, it is deemed a lake. Some- 
what circular, nearly two miles in 
circuit, constantly filled with water, 
without any outlet. It is between 
Green River and Glasgow, at the 
entrance of the Cumberland lime- 
stone region, where smaller sinks 
and ponds are common ; evidently 
one of them, filled up by water. 
Crawford’s Little Cave , one mile 
from Mount Vernon in the sand- 
stone region, is 200 yards long, full 
of beautiful stalactites. 
White Cave , near the Mammoth 
Cave, is another with handsome 
white stalagmites of many shapes 
on the floor. It was not there, as 
stated erroneously by Harlan, that 
the Aulaxodon was found, but in the 
Mummy Cave near it; a saltpetre 
cave, where 3 mummies were also 
discovered. 
Bryan’s Cave , near Lexington, is 
a small dry cave, in limestone, with 
a small spring at the entrance. It 
is like a crooked gallery, 380 steps 
long, 6 to 10 feet high and wide, 
with an even floor and roof. It is 
used by Mr. Bryan as a spring house. 
It had hardly any diluvial matter, 
but has a vent or air hole. 
Big Cave , in Rockcastle county, 
nine miles east of Mount Vernon, 
on Crooked Creek, is a fine saltpe- 
tre cave, 700 yards long, surface 
about 12J acres, divided in many 
rooms and branches. Breadth and 
height from 5 to 40 feet. There is 
a spring in it without outlet, but no 
stalactites. As much as 1000 lb. 
of saltpetre was made there in one 
single day. - 
Mammoth Cave. The largest salt- 
petre cave in Kentucky, near the 
south side of Green River, in the 
sandstone hills; but quite in the 
limestone beneath. Entrance in a 
cleft or chasm, very picturesque, of 
^hich a figure is here given, drawn 
by myself. I also made a correct 
map of it as far as I went, which is 
very different from those popular 
catch-penny maps already publish- 
ed. In fact, all the popular accounts 
of this cave, inserted in the ephe- 
meral press, are quite false, exag- 
gerated, or fabulous. Such is that 
copied in the Saturday Evening Post 
against my consent, with my figure. 
The best account is that given by 
Farnham in the Archeologia Ame- 
ricana ; yet it is also lame and im- 
perfect. It has many branches, ail 
in the gallery form, with a flat roof, 
but very uneven floor, ascending and 
descending, with many fallen stones 
forming sometimes hills. The 
branches are crooked, like a laby- 
rinth, sometimes descending under 
each other, with springs and a few 
stalactical pillars. Fanciful names 
have been given to these branches, 
galleries, called rooms and halls 
when expanding. The whole length 
is yet unknown, being very difficult 
to penetrate after 5 or 6 miles, but 
9 to 10 miles have been reached, 
and are supposed to extend under 
the bed of Green River, which l 
doubt, as the whole cave appears to 
have been once the subterranean 
bed of a stream, which emptied into 
Green River, not far from the en- 
trance, where the chasm leads and 
reaches the river. Much saltpetre 
was made here between 1814 and 
1816; vats, oxen, and negroes em- 
ployed, as in a manufacture ; 25 
miles of extent in branches were 
explored to seek for the nitrous 
earth ; no bones and no mummies 
were found there. The sides of the 
galleries are commonly smooth and 
of compact limestone, incrusted 
with efflorescence, native nitre, 
glauber salts, yellow ochre, calca- 
reous incrustations, Ike. in various 
places, They cover the few fossils 
of the strata, yet I observed some 
Madrepores, a fine Mastrema s and 
a Turhinolite . In a room, a kind 
of black flint or rather chert is found, 
indicating the eherty limestone* 
The temperature of this cave is 
