The ancient priests, in order to influence favorably the minds of the ignorant, pretended that the divinities they claimed to interpret had their residence in deep and dreary caverns, and that thence they revealed their mighty purpose to their mortal agents. The oracles of Delphos, which princes and sages were wont to consult, were interpreted, as it was assumed, by a priestess sitting at the mouth of a cave, and claiming to predict the future of nations, and tell the destiny of kings. The old Norsemen performed their barbarous rites in caverns; the Indian Brahmins devoted caverns to religious purposes, and from natural openings in the rocks constructed gorgeous temples. These subterranean chambers were doubtless the earliest abodes of men, and even now, in certain uncivilized regions, they are so employed. Petra—the Sela and Joktheel of the Bible—continues to be visited as a curiosity, because its ruins plainly indicate that its inhabitants dwelt in spaces hewn out of the solid stone. That caverns were used for the dead as well as for the living is evinced by the Catacombs of Thebes, Rome, Naples, and Malta.
MYSTERIES OF CAVES.
The greatest caves known—new ones are constantly being discovered—are of limestone, and of comparatively recent origin. Geology teaches that the primary formations of caves are many, though small, being produced by the action of water coursing through the strata, and that the continuation of this process for ages creates the vast and beautiful chambers, which all of us are so fond of exploring. Sweden and Norway boast of granite vaults, especially Marienstadt, of extraordinary dimensions, though some of them have been, as yet, but partially penetrated. The vicinity of Quito contains caves of modern porphyry, and the Isle of France caves of lava. Gurtshellir is a cavern of lava in Iceland, forty feet high, fifty broad, and one mile long. The caves of Agtelek in Hungary, and of Adelsberg in Carniola,—the latter noted for its transparent white pillars and brilliant stalactites,—are among the most remarkable in Europe.
Adelsberg has an unusual interest for naturalists, because a strange reptile, called the proteus, half a lizard and half an eel, has its habitat there. It has an extremely elastic constitution, and an extraordinary adaptability, as may be inferred from the fact that it subsists equally well on land or in water, imbedded in rock or buried in mud, requiring neither air nor light, food nor drink, for the sustainment of its existence. What an excellent littérateur the proteus would be as respects its limited necessities! If it happened to be an unappreciated genius, like most literary men, it need not feel any concern, for it could afford to wait until the world had come round to it, and the age had grown worthy of its thought. Fame, being a bubble, and therefore air, could not injure the nondescript creature, nor could the throwing of mud, as is the custom of journalists, mar it in the least. Much as it might be in (hot) water, it would not be troubled, and as to detraction and misrepresentation, its house would be (occasionally at least) built upon a rock, and would therefore stand firm.
THE CAVE OF GUACHARO.
In Venezuela is the celebrated cave of Guacharo, among the loftiest precipices of the mountain range; the entrance being through a gloomy ravine, running above a subterranean stream, the banks of which are covered with luxurious vegetation. Guacharo, as the name implies, is the resort of immense quantities of night birds, and their harsh notes resounding through its dismal recesses gave it the reputation, with the ignorant natives, of being the abode of the devil and his imps. For generations they have had traditions of dreadful ceremonies and hideous orgies held there, and have believed that many wicked persons have been seized by the imps, carried into and tortured in those awful recesses. They would not enter the cavern for any earthly consideration, sincerely believing that to do so would insure the loss of their souls. Humboldt, so far as known, was the first man who ever set foot within Guacharo; and he then succeeded, after unwearied patience and perseverance, in inducing a certain number of natives to accompany him as guides. They had not proceeded far, however, when the clamor of the birds so terrified them that they fled, in spite of every effort of the great naturalist to calm their superstitious fears.
Near Iletski, in Russia, is a freezing cave, so called because, reversing the order of the seasons, it is partially filled with ice in the summer, and altogether free from ice in the winter. Not a few of the caverns of the old world have been found to contain the bones of extinct species of animals. One of these, at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, was discovered about half a century ago, and in it were quantities of remains of bears, lions, tigers, hyenas, and hippopotami, all of orders that had passed away. It is presumed that the Kirkdale cave was for a long while a vast den of hyenas, and that some great inundation destroyed them and their kind.
THE GREATEST CAVE IN THE WORLD.
The greatest cave known on the globe is the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, situated in Edmonson County, near the Green River, ninety-four miles from Louisville, and nine miles from Cave City, the station on the Louisville and Nashville Railway where passengers get off when they wish to visit the celebrated cavern. The Mammoth Cave is world-renowned: I have found that the people of every nation, even our antipodes, are acquainted with it, though that may be the only thing in America of which they have any clear apprehension. I question if there be any other natural curiosity half so well known as that. Never have I travelled in any domain inhabited by intelligent people, who had not only heard of it, but who did not have something like accurate information respecting its extent and peculiarities. Famous as it is, and easy of access, comparatively few of our countrymen have explored it. Indeed, the very ease of its access has prevented a great many persons from going there who would otherwise have gone. What we can do at any time we are not likely to do at all; for any time is really no time. I have met residents of Naples who had never ascended Vesuvius, or seen the ruins of Pompeii. I am acquainted with citizens of Schaffhausen who have never set eyes on the magnificent Rhine Falls. There are Parisians who have never been in the Louvre Gallery, or the Park of Versailles; Romans who have never stood before the Apollo, the Laocoön, or the Transfiguration; Athenians who have never been within the Parthenon; Cairines to whom the pyramids are a dream; denizens of St. Petersburg unacquainted with Moscow; Viennese ignorant of the Belvedere and Schönbrunn; Berlinese unfamiliar with Potsdam, and cultivated Londoners who have never made a pilgrimage to Stratford, to the tomb of the most wonderful genius the world has yet shown.
It is not strange, therefore, that Kentuckians, liberal as their state vanity is, should often die without “doing” the Mammoth Cave. I remember how often I went within a few miles of the cave before I took the trouble to visit it, and that, finally, dissatisfied with myself for its long neglect, I made a special journey from New York to carry out my much deferred purpose. For several years a branch railway has been talked of from Cave City to the Cave; but it has never been built, needful as it is in the saving of time. Eighteen miles of coaching, in these rapid and driving days, appear to the average traveller considerable of a task; and when to this is added the two full days required for an exploration of the enormous cavern, it is easy to understand why so many persons refuse to examine the subterranean chamber lying along the Green River.