Journal of a Tour into the Interior of Missouri and Arkansaw | Page 5

and is covered by tall pines, which add much to the beauty of the prospect from the valley below. In the stupendous wall of rocks before me are situated several caves, whose dark and capacious mouths indicate their extent. Many of these, however, cannot be visited without ladders, as they are situated forty or fifty feet above the level of the creek. With considerable difficulty and labour we entered one of them, by means of a large oak which had fallen partly against the mouth of the cave. We found it a spacious chamber, connected with others of less size, and affording both stalactites, and stalagmites. The former hang like icicles from the roof in various fanciful forms, and some specimens which we succeeded in detaching were translucent, and exhibited much beauty and regularity in the arrangement of their colours, consisting of concentric lines of yellow and brown passing by imperceptible shades into each other.�� We also obtained in this cave native salt-petre, very white and beautiful. It was found filling small crevices in the rock. The number of caves which we have this day visited, large and small, is seven, and all afford salt-petre. In the largest of these, great quantities of this article are annually collected and manufactured by Col. Ashley, of Mine ? Burton, and transported to his powder-manufactory, in Washington county. The cavernous nature of the country bordering this stream is one of its most distinguishing characteristics, and I have seized upon this fact in calling it Cave Creek. This little stream is one of the most interesting objects in the natural physiognomy of the country, which we have thus far met with, and affords a striking instance of that wonderful arrangement in the physical construction of the surface of the earth, which gives vallies to the smallest streams, and tears asunder rocks to allow them passages into rivers, and through them into their common basin, the ocean. Its banks rise in majestic walls of limestone, which would form the most ample barrier to the waves of the sea, and they occasionally rise into peaks, which if located on the coast of the ocean, would be hailed as landmarks by the mariner. The Opposite banks correspond with general exactness in their curves, height, composition, and thickness of strata, and other characters evincing their connexion at a former period. Yet the only object apparently effected by the separation of such immense strata of rocks, a change which I cannot now contemplate without awe and astonishment, is to allow a stream of twenty yards across a level and undisturbed passage into the adjacent river, the Currents, which it joins, after winding in the most circuitous manner about four miles below. In the course of this distance, the views which are presented are commanding and delightful, and to the painter who wishes to depict the face of nature in its wildest aspect of rocky grandeur, I could recommend this valley, and the adjacent county, as one of unrivalled attractions. A scene so full of interest could not fail to receive the homage of our admiration, and we rambled about the country, until night almost imperceptibly approached, when we returned to our camp, repacked our horse, and moved up the valley of Cave Creek, one mile to Ashley Cave, in which we encamped safe from the weather, turning our horse loose to feed about its mouth. We had just built our night-fire as it became dark, and while I spread out our skins and prepared for sleep, Mr. P. boiled our accustomed pot of coffee, and got ready a supper, which, although not consisting of many dishes, or choice cookery, excited our most cordial approbation, and we partook of it with that keen appetite, and that feeling of lordly independence, which are alone felt by the wild Indian, and the half-starved Missouri hunter. Having finished our frugal meal, we determined to explore the cave before we lay down, lest some beast of prey, hid in its recesses, should be aroused by our intrusion, and pounce upon us during the night.
This cave is situated in a high wall of lime-stone rock, forming the southern bank of Cave Creek, eighty miles south-west of Potosi, and near the head of Current's River, one of the principal tributaries of Black River, in Missouri territory. The entrance to it is by a winding foot-path from the banks of the creek, and leads to the mouth of the cave at an elevation of about fifty feet above the level of the water. Its mouth is about ninety feet wide and thirty in height, a size which, without great variation, it holds for two hundred yards. Here it suddenly opens into a room which is an irregular circle, with a height of eighty or ninety feet, and