| OCR Text |
Show 130' TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH .tH'«ERICA: along the ficep· part of'the mountain, which is extl' mdy rugged, and coven:d with immenfe rocks and tr es from top to bottom. The mou h of the cavtrn, on this il:ccp fide, about two third' of the wa.y Hf, is guard~,;d by a hngc pendent :ll:one, which feems ready to dr~p ev .ry inlhnt, and it is har·dly poflihle to il:dc)p under it, withou·t rctidbng With a. certain degree o{ awe, that were it to drop, nothing c uld fave you from peri!hing within tlw dreary w,1lls of that manJion to \·vhich it afford · an entrance. Prep. ratory to cntcri11g, th guide, wl om I had procured from a n ighbonring houfe, lighted the end of tl rce or fout· fplinters of p'tc 1 1 pine, a large bundle of which he had brought with him: they bnrn out very f.1fl:, but while they lail. arc mofi: excellent torches. The fire h · brought along vith him, by means of a bit of gre n hie ory wood, which, when OJ ce lighted, Wi1l burn flowJy Wi bout any blaze till the whole is con fumed. The fidl: npartment you enter is about twenty-five feet high, and fifteen broad, and extends a confiderable way to the right and left, the floor a!Cending towards the fi)rmer; here it is very moifi:, from the quantity of water continually trickling from the roof. Fahrenheit's thermometer, which fi:ood at 67" in· the air, fell to 61• in this room. A few yards to the left, on the fiJ.e oppofi tc to you on (; ntcring, a paffage prefents itfelf, which leads to a fort of anti-chamber as it were, from whence you proceed into the found room, fo named from the prodigious reverberation of the found of a voice or mufical infl rument at the infide. This room is about tw<.:nty feet fquarc; it is arched at top, and the fides of it, as well as of that :1partmcnt which you .firil: ent r, arc b ·.llltifully ornamented with JblaCtites. Returning from hence into the antichambcr, and afterwards tal ing two or three turn to the right and left, you ent r a long paibge about thirt en feet wid , and perhaps about fiftt.:en in heibht perpendicubrly; but if it was meafured from the Boor to the highefi: part of the roof obliqudy, the diftance woulc..l be found much greater, as the walls on oth fic..les flope very confiderably, and finally meet at top. This pafiagc defcends very rapidly, and is, I lhould fuppofe, about fixty yards long. Towards the end it narrows confiderably, and terminates • M A D D I S 0 N' s C A V E. IJt terminates in a pool of clear Water, about three or four feet deep. How {lr this pool extends it is impofiiblc to £1y. A canoe was once brought own by a party, for the purpofe of examination, but they faid, that aftl:r procccdiJJ<Y a little way upon the water the canoe would not float, and they 'cr ft reed to return. Their f; ars, moO: probably, led them to fancy it was fo. I fired a pifi:ol with a ball over the water, but the rc1 ort \vas ccho<.;d from the after part of the cavern) ~nd not from that part beyond the water, fo th.,t I fho 1ld not fuppo!c the pafi1gc extended much farther than could be tr,1ced ith tl1c ey<.;. The w.dls of this p. fnlge confifl of a folid rock of limefl:onc on a h fide, which , ppcnrs to have been ft para ted by fome convulJ1on. The floor is of a d ·ep f1n ly earth, and it has repeatedly been dug up for the purpo[c of getting 6ltpctrc, with which )he earth is il:rongly impregnated. The earth, after being dug up, is mixed with water, and when the grofft.:r particles fall to the bottom, the w, ter is drawn off and evaporated; from the r ·fiduc; the .C1ltpetr is procurec..l . There arc many other caverns in this neighbourhood, and aHo farther to the wefl:ward, in Virginia; from all of them great quantities of faltpetre arc thus obtained. The gunpowder made with it, in the back country, fon:ns a principal artidc of G011.1mcrcc, and is fcnt to Philadelphia in exchange for European manuf.<.9:ures. About two third f the way down this long pailagc, juil de-fcribcd, is a Janye a crturc in the wall on the right, leading to another apartment, the bottom of which js about len feet below th floor of he paJhgc, and it is no C'l(Y matter to r;r·t d wn 'nto it, as the fides are very il:cep and extremely Hip '~ry. Th ·., is 1e hrg '{Land moO: beautiful room in the whole cavern; it i ; f mcwha~ of an oval form, about fixty fee.t in 1ennth, thirty in bread th, an (l ir (nne parts nc.ltly fifty {; et high. The petrifaCtions formed hy th' water droppin fmt.:l above arc moll: beautiful, and hano- down from he ccilin · in the.: wrm ~ of cleo-ant drapery, the folds of which arc 1i11ibr to wh. t thofc of larg blankets or carpets would be if fufpcnded by one cornet· in a lofty rootn, If fhuck wit 1 a ftick a deep hollow found is f reduced, which echoes through the vaults of the cwern. In other p-1rts of this room the petrifaCtions have commcnc d at the bottom, and formed in pillars of S 2 different |
