Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, during the Year 1844 | Page 7

eyes around we perceived him
standing some forty feet above, on the projection of a huge rock, or
tower, which commands a view of the grand gallery to a great extent
both up and down.
Leaving the Main Cave and ascending a flight of stairs twenty or thirty
feet, we entered the Gothic Avenue, so named from the Gothic
appearance of some of its compartments. This avenue is about forty
feet wide, fifteen feet high and two miles long. The ceiling looks in
many places as smooth and white as though it had been under the
trowel of the most skilful plasterer. A good road has been made

throughout this cave, and such is the temperature and purity of its
atmosphere, that every visitor must experience their salutary influences.
In a recess on the left hand elevated a few feet above the floor and
about fifty feet from the head of the stairs leading up from the Main
Avenue, two mummies long since taken away, were to be seen in 1813.
They were in good preservation; one was a female with her extensive
wardrobe placed before her. The removal of those mummies from the
place in which they were found can be viewed as little less than
sacrilege. There they had been, perhaps for centuries, and there they
ought to have been left. What has become of them I know not. One of
them, it is said, was lost in the burning of the Cincinnati museum. The
wardrobe of the female was given to a Mr. Ward, of Massachusetts,
who I believe presented it to the British Museum.
Two of the miners found a mummy in Audubon Avenue, in 1814. With
a view to conceal it for a time, they placed large stones over it, and
marked the walls about the spot so that they might find it at some future
period; this however, they were never able to effect. In 1840, the
present hotel keeper Mr. Miller, learning the above facts, went in
search of the place designated, taking with him very many lights, and
found the marks on the walls, and near to them the mummy. It was,
however, so much injured and broken to pieces by the heavy weights
which had been placed upon it, as to be of little interest or value. I have
no doubt, that if proper efforts were made, mummies and other objects
of curiosity might be found, which would tend to throw light on the
early history of the first inhabitants of this continent.
Believing, that whatever may relate to these mummies cannot fail to
interest, I will extract from the recently published narrative of a highly
scientific gentleman of New York, himself one of the early visitors to
the Cave.
"On my first visit to the Mammoth Cave in 1813, I saw a relic of
ancient times, which requires a minute description. This description is
from a memorandum made in the Cave at the time.
"In the digging of saltpetre earth, in the short cave, a flat rock was met

with by the workmen, a little below the surface of the earth in the Cave;
this stone was raised, and was about four feet wide and as many long;
beneath it was a square excavation about three feet deep and as many in
length and width. In this small nether subterranean chamber, sat in
solemn silence one of the human species, a female with her wardrobe
and ornaments placed at her side. The body was in a state of perfect
preservation, and sitting erect The arms were folded up and the hands
were laid across the bosom; around the two wrists was wound a small
cord, designed probably, to keep them in the posture in which they
were first placed; around the body and next thereto, was wrapped two
deer-skins. These skins appear to have been dressed in some mode
different from what is now practised by any people, of whom I have
any knowledge. The hair of the skins was cut off very near the surface.
The skins were ornamented with the imprints of vines and leaves,
which were sketched with a substance perfectly white. Outside of these
two skins was a large square sheet, which was either wove or knit. This
fabric was the inner bark of a tree, which I judge from appearances to
be that of the linn tree. In its texture and appearance, it resembled the
South Sea Island cloth or matting; this sheet enveloped the whole body
and the head. The hair on the head was cut off within an eighth of an
inch of the skin, except near the neck, where it was an inch long. The
color of the hair was a dark red; the teeth were white and perfect. I
discovered no blemish upon