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62 ABBOTT'S MONTHLY

They built themselves stone huts to dwell in. After five months, one of their number died, and losing faith, they deserted the cave in a body, all dying soon afterwards.

One enters the Cave through Hutchins Narrow, named after the bear hunter who discovered the Cave. Another entrance was formerly on Green River, and now is known as Dixon's Cave. One in Mammoth Cave can hear voices in Dixon's Cave, but cannot pass from one cave to the other.

After passing through Hutchins Narrow one comes into the Rotunda, a room 150 wide and 200 feet long with a ceiling 40 feet high. It is 19 feet below the surface and on the second level. There are five levels in all; on enters on the second, by the regular tour and journeys downward to the fifth level. The mouth of the cave is in a forest ravine, 194 feet above Green River and 600 feet above the sea.

ONE passes from the Rotunda with its perfect circular dome into Broadway which averages 40 feet in height and 60 feet in width for three miles. Then one comes out on Kentucky cliff which resembles a cliff on the Kentucky River. Next, Methodist Chapel is noted for its double dome and cascade. And it is here that the miners held monthly services from 1812 to 1814.

There is a statue of Martha Washington that is formed by two angles of the Cave, and was discovered accidentally by William Garvin, a guide of our Race. From this statue one travels to the bottom of the cave which is 350 feet below the surface.

There is a wonderful drainage to Mammoth Cave known as the Echo River. The sounds that one mistakes for echoes are really reverberations which come from the high vaulted ceilings. The river has been traversed about a mile and a half. The water is 30 feet deep at low water mark and is from 40 to 60 feet wide. Most of the time it is as clear as a crystal and keeps a temperature of 52 degrees. Yet during the spring of the year, the current rises and gets muddy. The water climbs at a rate of 4 feet an hour and backs up 52 feet.

In the Echo River are the world famous eyeless fish which are perfectly white. They have not even the eye socket, only the bare optic nerve. Other weird creatures are found in the Cave, such as small crayfish, wingless grasshoppers, brown beetles, and white spiders—all of them blind.

Boats 24 feet long are on Echo River for accommodating the visitors. One leaves River Hall, the bottom of the Cave, and returns by the Corkscrew, which is exactly what its name implies. This cuts off two miles of travel on the return trip, and takes one to the upper level. 

IN the winter, thousands of bats seek the friendly shelter of the cave, hanging by their feet until spring, but even in summer many of them may be seen flying around the roof.

Violet City, a room 250 feet long and 125 feet wide, contains hundreds of most remarkable stalactites of onyx, varying in size from minute needles to those of several feet in length. One group is so attuned that, if struck by some hard substance, the tones resemble those of a chime of bells, and simple tunes can easily be played on them. 

In Gothic avenue are other stalactites of remarkable interest, such as those at the Bridal Altar, where four columns eight feet high have formed by the union of stalactites and stalagmites. Twenty-one couples have been married here. 

The Star Chamber has a ceiling of black manganese studded with innumerable crystals of showy gypsum, which resemble stars in the artificial light thrown upon them by the guides. 

Among the most surprising features of cave scenery are the vertical shafts that pierce through all levels, from the uppermost galleries, or even from the sinkholes, down to the lowest floor. These are styled pits or domes, according to the position occupied by the observer. A crevice behind a block of stone, 40 feet long by 20 feet wide, called the Giant's Coffin, admits the explorer to a place where six pits, varying in depth from 65 feet to 200 feet, exist in an area of 600 yards.

MAMMOTH DOME, at the termination of Spark's avenue, has a cataract which falls from a height of 150 feet amid walls wonderfully draped with stalactitic tapestry. The Egyptian Temple, a continuation of the Mammoth Dome, contains six massive columns, two of them quite perfect and 80 feet high and 25 feet in diameter. The combined length of these contiguous chambers is 400 feet. 

Besides Echo River there are several other streams, including the Styx River, which has a natural bridge of forty feet. Lake Lethe is a broad basin enclosed by walls 90 feet high.

Not all the passages of the Cave have been explored as yet. The main tour avoids many of the by-ways. I was exploring with two friends in the deeper recesses of the Cave, when I came upon some new pits never seen before. They did not appear very deep, so I jumped down into one, and found to my surprise that I was too

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Onyx chimes, the most beautiful of the wonders of the cave. 

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for JANUARY, 1931     63

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The Moor's Revenge
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Fascid was riding easier. Mahasmid was watching the work of the Circassians up in the rigging when Standing Lee approached. "I want Brum, the Jamaican," he said brusquely. Mahasmid quickly found him. The captain moved away with Brum until they reached the open space of the forward deck. Then the captain turned sharply as he asked in a tone of contempt:

"For bringing two Christian dogs aboard, you receive what?" Brum's manner was like the animal to which the captain referred. He saw his plans broken up; himself robbed of the fruits of a neat little deal; and he hated to give up the money. But fear took hold of him. He did not think to even lie about the correct sum. 

"I got fifty crowns," he replied, meekly.

"Throw them overboard!" commanded the captain, giving vent to his fury in a thunderous roar. All eyes turned to the forward deck. Mahasmid ceased bullying the Circassians; and the Circassians promptly ignored the bully Mahasmid. Brum stood looking at the captain in an awkward manner; he did not believe his ears.

"Over board, I say!" Again roared Standing Lee. In the babble and uproar that came from the Circassians in the rigging, the Moors and Hindus crowding forward, Brum was not sure that the enraged captain had commanded him to throw himself or his money overboard. In a fraction of a minute the Moor captain whipped a revolver from under his loose jacket. He swung viciously. The butt struck Brum under the ear; he reeled backward and fell against a bulkhead, rolled over on his stomach, and lay still, with blood gushing from his mouth, the result of a broken jaw. Captain Lee told his mate to search for the money. Mahasmid knew exactly where to find it. The sharp eyes of most of the crew had noticed the outline of a small bag under Brum's trouser's leg dangling just above the knee. Mahasmid drew a knife, ripped the pants' leg open, slashed the cord by which the bag of gold was held to the prostrate man's waist; he held the bag a moment with his fingers clutching it greedily; his eyes searched in vain into those of the captain for signs of relenting; then with a smothered oath he threw the bag into the sea.

"Tell that wretch, if he ever wakes up, I'm still the captain of the El Fascid." And Standing Lee, powerful, in frame as well as in command, moved off from his gaping, startled crew. 

Mahasmid, shaking with rage, fell upon the Circassians again; but he swore at Hindu and Moor alike; neither did David Mobree at the wheel escape his poisonous tongue. Every few minutes the mate gazed upon the undulating waves; he had held a small fortune in his grasp, but by the power of forty devils he had been forced to throw it away.

The crew immediately sensed the feeling of the captain toward the sto'ways. They, too, resented their presence. 

For the first time in his life Doctor Burr became acquainted with the evil, devastating emotion of one who learns he is hated--hated by those upon whom his welfare for the time being is dependant. When the sea calmed, he walked the deck in painful silence. The Moors stared at him. The Hindus in their language insulted him, when they were not laughing at him, or watching Mahasmid. The Circassians ignored him' for they felt that his pale complexion was somehow responsible for Mahasmid's increased malice towards themselves. Although the doctor and his son spent a part of each day in the cabin, at night Standing Lee turned them out. The Hindus and the Moors, likewise the Circassians, resented their sleeping near their bunks and hammocks. They were forced to spend the nights in the hole of the schooner among the logs. And during the day after the crew had feasted, the doctor, ignorant of any culinary knowledge, made feeble and somewhat amateurish efforts to prepare food for himself and his son. While the cook to show his neutrality at least, aired himself on deck and smoked his pipe complacently. Only David showed him any kindness; he assisted him each night in getting his son down into the hole, and each morning, out of it. One day David mistaking a Moor's mess pan for his own, filled it with broth for Benjamin. The Moor in a rage tripped David and flung the mess pan into the sea. Doctor Burr looked on with helpless chagrin.

In bitterness the doctor often watched the Hindus squatted around a huge caldron dipping out their food while he awaited the pleasure of the Welsh cook to enter the mess galley. And as the days passed he grew weaker. His son did not improve. 

Once, hoping to bring himself into favor with the crew, offered his professional service to aid Brum. The offer was curtly refused by the first mate. A day or two later he sought conversation with the captain when he had come down from the poop.

"It seems," he said, rather piteously, while supporting himself against a rail, "every hand aboard this ship is raised against us--why?" He got no answer from the captain. "Sometimes I believe we've met before--but my memory is poor."

"Does the range of your acquaintance include Moor sailors?" the captain asked, icily.

"I can't recall that it does; but somehow your face--"

"You are suffering with a queer hallucination," retorted Captain Lee as he walked away. Doctor Burr gazed after him with impotent anger. This Moor, this nigger, was a liar--an abominable liar! When he arrived in sight of his beloved Virginia shore he would tell him so; under different circumstances he would tell him now. In a short while, however, he began to realize the futility of his anger; but he cursed the fate that had so cruelly placed him.

The El Fascid had left the Antilles far behind. Under bulging canvas the giant schooner was  moving swiftly north on the Atlantic. When the sun one day at noon fell like a benediction upon her--like a blessing of the Almighty on the just and the unjust--Benjamin died. 

DOCTOR BURR sat for hours afterwards as in a trance. He was stunned; he gave heed to no one until Standing Lee demanded the 

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