Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, during the Year 1844

Rambles in the Mammoth Cave,
during the Year 1844

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Title: Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, during the Year 1844 By a
Visiter
Author: Alexander Clark Bullitt
Release Date: July 6, 2005 [EBook #16220]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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IN THE MAMMOTH CAVE ***

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RAMBLES IN THE MAMMOTH CAVE,
DURING THE YEAR 1844,

BY A VISITER.

By
Alexander Clark Bullitt

LOUISVILLE, KY.: MORTON & GRISWOLD. 1845.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by MORTON
& GRISWOLD, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Kentucky.
Printed by MORTON & GRISWOLD.

ERRATA.
Page 11th, fifth line from the bottom; for faltering, read pattering.
Page 46th, eighth line from the top--"They are well furnished, and,
without question, would with good and comfortable accommodations,
pure air, and uniform temperature, cure the pulmonary consumption.
The invalids in the Cave ought to be cured, &c.,"
read,
They are well furnished, and, without question, if good and comfortable
accommodations, pure air, and uniform temperature, could cure the
pulmonary consumption, the invalids in the Cave ought to be cured.
Page 101, last line: read, "It has no brother: it is like no brother."

PUBLISHER'S ADVERTISEMENT.
To meet the calls so frequently made upon as by intelligent visitors to

our City, for some work descriptive of the Mammoth Cave, we are, at
length, enabled to present the public a succinct, but instructive narrative
of a visit to this "Wonder of Wonders," from the pen of a gentleman,
who, without professing to have explored ALL that is curious or
beautiful or sublime in its vast recesses, has yet seen every thing that
has been seen by others, and has described enough to quicken and
enlighten the curiosity of those who have never visited it.
Aware of the embarrassment which most persons experience who
design visiting the Cave, owing to the absence of any printed itinerary
of the various routes leading to it, we have supplied, in the present
volume, this desideratum, from information received from reliable
persons residing on the different roads here enumerated. The road from
Louisville to the Cave, and thence to Nashville, is graded the entire
distance, and the greater part of it M'Adamized. From Louisville to the
mouth of Salt river, twenty miles, the country is level, with a rich
alluvial soil, probably at some former period the bed of a lake. A few
miles below the former place and extending to the latter, a chain of
elevated hills is seen to the South-East, affording beautiful and
picturesque situations for country seats, and strangely overlooked by
the rich and tasteful. The river is crossed by a ferry, and the traveler is
put down at a comfortable inn in the village of West Point. Two miles
from the mouth of Salt river, begins the ascent of Muldrow's Hill. The
road is excellent, and having elevated hills on either side, is highly
romantic to its summit, five miles. From the top of this hill to
Elizabethtown, the country is well settled, though the improvements are
generally indifferent--the soil thin, but well adapted to small-grain, and
oak the prevailing growth. Elizabethtown, twenty-five miles from the
mouth of Salt river, is quite a pretty and flourishing village, built
chiefly of brick, with several churches and three large inns. From this
place to Nolin creek, the distance is ten miles. Here there is a small
town, containing some ten or twelve log houses, a large saw and grist
mill, and a comfortable and very neat inn, kept by Mr. Mosher.
Immediately after crossing this creek, the traveler enters "Yankee
Street," as the inhabitants style this section of the road. For a distance
of ten or twelve miles from Nolin toward Bacon creek, the land belongs,
or did belong to the former Postmaster General, Gideon Granger, and

on either side of the road, to the extent of Mr. G.'s possessions, are
settlements made by emigrants from New York and the New England
States. From Bacon creek to Munfordsville, eight miles, the country is
pleasantly undulating, and here, indeed the whole route from
Elizabethtown to the Cave, passes through what was until recently a
Prairie, or, in the language of the country, "Barrens," and renders it
highly interesting, especially to the botanist, from the multitude and
variety of flowers with which