Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, during the Year 1844 | Page 6

grandeur.
Proceeding down the main Cave about a quarter of a mile, we came to
the Kentucky Cliffs, so called from the fancied resemblance to the
cliffs on the Kentucky River, and descending gradually about twenty
feet entered the church, when our guide was discovered in the pulpit
fifteen feet above us, having reached there by a gallery which leads
from the cliffs. The ceiling here is sixty three feet high, and the church
itself, including the recess, cannot be less than one hundred feet in
diameter. Eight or ten feet above and immediately behind the pulpit, is
the organ loft, which is sufficiently capacious for an. organ and choir of
the largest size. There would appear to be something like design in all
this;--here is a church large enough to accomodate thousands, a solid
projection of the wall of the Cave to serve as a pulpit, and a few feet
back a place for an organ and choir. In this great temple of nature,
religious service has been frequently held, and it requires but a slight
effort on the part of a speaker, to make himself distinctly heard by the
largest congregation.
Sometimes the guides climb up the high and ragged sides, and suspend
lamps in the crevices and on the projections of the rock, thus lighting
up a scene of wild grandeur and sublimity.

Concerts too have been held here, and the melody of song has been
heard, such as would delight the ear of a Catalini or a Malibran.
Leaving the church you will observe, on ascending, a large
embankment of lixiviated earth thrown out by the miners more than
thirty years ago, the print of wagon wheels and the tracks of oxen, as
distinctly defined as though they were made but yesterday; and
continuing on for a short distance, you arrive at the Second Hoppers.
Here are seen the ruins of the old nitre works, leaching vats, pump
frames and two lines of wooden pipes; one to lead fresh water from the
dripping spring to the vats filled with the nitrous earth, and the other to
convey the lye drawn from the large reservoir, back to the furnace at
the mouth of the Cave.
The quantity of nitrous earth contained in the Cave is "sufficient to
supply the whole population of the globe with saltpetre."
"The dirt gives from three to five pounds of nitrate of lime to the bushel,
requiring a large proportion of fixed alkali to produce the required
crystalization, and when left in the Cave become re-impregnated in
three years. When saltpetre bore a high price, immense quantities were
manufactured at the Mammoth Cave, but the return of peace brought
the saltpetre from the East Indies in competition with the American,
and drove that of the produce of our country entirely from the market.
An idea may be formed of the extent of the manufacture of saltpetre at
this Cave, from the fact that the contract for the supply of the fixed
alkali alone for the Cave, for the year 1814, was twenty thousand
dollars."
"The price of the article was so high, and the profits of the
manufacturer so great, as to set half the western world gadding after
nitre caves--the gold mines of the day. Cave hunting in fact became a
kind of mania, beginning with speculators, and ending with hair
brained young men, who dared for the love of adventure the risk which
others ran for profit." Every hole, remarked an old miner, the size of a
man's body, has been penetrated for miles around the Mammoth Cave,
but although we found "petre earth," we never could find a cave worth
having.

CHAPTER II.
Gothic Gallery--Gothic Avenue--Good Road--Mummies--Interesting
Account of Them--Gothic Avenue once called Haunted Chamber--Why
so Named-- Adventure of a Miner in Former Days.
In looking from the ruins of the nitre works, to the left and some thirty
feet above, you will see a large cave, connected with which is a narrow
gallery sweeping across the Main Cave and losing itself in a cave,
which is seen above to your right This latter cave is the Gothic Avenue,
which no doubt was at one time connected with the cave opposite and
on the same level, forming a complete bridge over the main avenue, but
afterwards broken down and separated by some great convulsion.
The cave on the left, which is filled with sand, has been penetrated but
a short distance; still from its great size at its entrance, it is more than
probable, that, were all obstructions removed, it might be found to
extend for miles.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE GOTHIC AVENUE. On Stone by
T. Campbell Bauer & Teschemacher's Lith.]
While examining the old saltpetre works, the guide left us without our
being aware of it, but casting our