No stooping or crawling has to be done in the Main Cave, and the floor is everywhere dry. Formerly the tilting slabs of limestone made walking difficult, but now these are removed so as to give us a fairly smooth road throughout. The serpentine winding known as the S-bend expands to a width of one hundred and seventy-five feet and keeps that width for five hundred and fifty feet; but midway it meets a grand crossing, that increases the width to about four hundred feet. Fox Avenue, near by, encloses a large cave-island.
Dr. Nahum Ward and other early explorers fancied the Main Cave as formerly an underground Nile, and its rocky masses ruined cities; and on the first maps they were numbered First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth City. The first in order was called the Chief City, while the fourth, now familiar to us by that name, was the Temple. This fact explains some conflicting accounts by early and more recent authors. Robert M. Bird was responsible for these changes, giving the name of Wright’s Rotunda to the First City in honor of his friend, Prof. C. A. Wright, M. D.
This is one of the most spacious rooms in the Cave, being shaped like the letter T, its length about five hundred feet and its width at the transept about three hundred and fifty feet. The ceiling is quite level throughout, but the floor is irregular, causing the space between roof and floor to vary from ten to forty-five feet. When several chemical fires are ignited at distant points simultaneously the effect is superb. Ragged cliffs divide this prodigious area, making a sort of great island, beyond which by climbing through the so-called Chimneys those who wish can reach the Black Chambers above, extending for several hundred feet. The walls and domes of these chambers are coated with the black oxide of manganese, and the enormous rocks lie scattered in the wildest disorder.
Returning to Wright’s Rotunda and taking the other arm of the T, we presently find ourselves looking directly into a steep hollow, or pit, into which the Cataracts tumble from orifices in the roof, and with resounding force after a rainfall. Those who risk a descent part way down the pit and climb over a wall may find their way into the Solitary Chambers and the Fairy Grotto, though the difficulty of access prevents these places from being ordinarily exhibited. A “tumble-down” to the left of the Cataract chasm might correctly be regarded as the termination of the Main Cave.
A passage to the left opens from Cataract Hall to a lofty avenue commonly spoken of as a continuation of the Main Cave, but really on another level. The limestone slabs that used to clatter under our feet and endanger our equilibrium have been made firm or else removed, and we easily proceed through the Gorge and across the portal of what once was styled the Temple, but has long been known as the Chief City.
By my measurement the room is four hundred and fifty feet long, with an average width of one hundred and seventy-five feet; but others have made the dimensions larger. The utmost height does not exceed one hundred and twenty-five feet. The maximum width, as measured by Dr. Call, is two hundred and eighty-seven feet. The area covers about two acres. And over this vast space springs a solid and seamless canopy of gray limestone, that has thus lifted its majestic arch for thousands of years. Dr. Bird found here, in 1837, aboriginal relics “in astonishing, unaccountable quantities.” Formerly these were heaped as bonfires to illuminate the chamber; but even yet cartloads remain of half-burnt cane-torches, fragments of woven moccasins, and other objects of interest, to reward search amid crevices and crannies. The theory is that the Indians made this place their council chamber, or else their stronghold of refuge from enemies.
Fascinated with the local attractions and possibly too forgetful of the weariness of my guide, I lingered once till midnight, prowling amid the fastnesses of the Chief City. Noticing presently the utter silence that prevailed, I returned to where my guide had been left on guard, only to find a couple of lamps and a strip of brown paper on which he had scrawled the words, “It is midnight and I got tired and went out.” The guide had really deserted me, and the only thing to do was to await the coming of comrades, who would surely hunt me up, as they did after the lapse of an hour or so. Extinguishing the lamps meanwhile, fancy was given full play to people the mysterious council chamber with ghosts of dusky warriors, till there seemed to be a rush of whispers and other imaginary sounds that were really caused, I suppose, by the coursing of the blood through my veins. It was easy to realize that a person actually lost in Mammoth Cave might soon be so bewildered as to lose his reason. Even in my own case it was a relief to break the spell, as I did, by simply striking a match and trimming anew the flickering flame of my lamps. Every observant visitor has seen with pleasure the assemblage of rocks and the overarching canopy aglow with Bengal lights or burning magnesium, and has commented on the singular fact that the lofty dome seems to follow him as he retires from its protection.
St. Catherine City, which lies beyond, is at the intersection of the Blue Spring Branch and Blackall Avenue with the main passageway. The latter, recently named in honor of the veteran cave-hunter, Dr. C. R. Blackall, of Philadelphia, ends in a funnel-shaped pit bearing the name of Symmes’ Pit, probably in memory of Captain John Cleves Symmes, of Newport, Kentucky, whose theory gained much attention formerly—that our globe was a hollow sphere with an opening at the poles, and that within were races of men and animals different from those on the surface. At a public meeting held at Frankfort, a resolution was adopted to the effect that the United States Congress should fit out an expedition to the Arctic Circle under his command, in order to find, if possible, the mysterious Polar pit for which this Cave pit was named.
Our course, however, leads us to Waldach’s Dome (in memory of Charles Waldach, the pioneer in cave-photography) and Hains’ Dome (in honor of his successor, Ben Hains), both of them symmetrical and noble domes, rising to oval ceilings above smooth floors of sand. In the Garret we find flakes of Epsom salts like those found in the Snow Room. Bending low through Mayme’s Stoopway, we reach what to Dr. Call and myself seemed to be an impenetrable wall, to which we gave what we thought the fitting name of “Ultima Thule.”
In the year 1908 Mr. Max Kaemper, of Germany, undertook a complete exploration of Mammoth Cave, assisted by Edward Bishop, guide, the results of which are exclusively for the owners of the Cave. Their observations led them to suspect that a certain tumble-down in the Sandstone Avenue might be identical with the tumble-down known as Ultima Thule. Hence they attacked a crawl-way near the latter, and by patiently removing many limestone fragments they wormed their way through to an oval hall, one hundred and sixty feet long by one hundred and twenty feet wide and sixty feet high, now named, for its discoverer, Kaemper Hall. An unseen waterfall, by whose music they had been led onward, was now seen to dash down an abyss they named, for the guide, Bishop’s Pit. Another is the “Parrish Pit,” so called for Norman A. Parrish, of Buffalo, New York. These are the first of a series of eleven pits, the others not yet being named.