Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1878 — A Tremendous Cave. [ARTICLE]

A Tremendous Cave.

Some time ago a Mr. Neff, residing near Alexandria, Huntingdon county, this State, went to his well to get a drink and found it dry. He then went down into the well to make repairs, and was much surprised to find not a pint of water, and the bottom fallen out. A cool breeze blew up strong enough to rustle the leaves of a tree standing near. He tied a lantern to a rope 100 feet long and let it down, and, as the lantern still burned he rightly concluded that the air was pure. He then procured a spliced rope 300 feet in length, and to the end attached a basket containing a lantern, a dog and a cat. He let them down, striking bottom at 291 feet. At the end of six hours the basket was brought up. The lantern was still burning, and the only visible effect on the dog and the cat was chilliness. The next day the owner of the well, accompanied by a trusty neighbor, Mr. Lefford, descended to the bottom. What was their surprise to find an immense cave, stretching miles and miles in every direction. Stalagmites and stalactites of magnificent gorgeousness lent beauty and variety to the otherwise tomb-like scene. Here and there a flowing stream of water rippled over stony beds, while thousands and thousands of bats fluttered their clammy wings, surprised at the intrusion of man. Petrified sea shells of a hundred varieties strewed the floor and protruded from the strata. After spending ten or twelve hours of continuous wandering, during which time they penetiated beneath and beyond Alexandria, and discovered a vein of nickel ore and a nugget of metal resembling antimony, they returned to the surface, where their half-stricken wives clasped them to their bosoms, thinking they had been lost. It is supposed that this cave is connected with those at Warrior ridge and Sinking valley, only a few miles away. Specimens of the nickel ore have been sent to Philadelphia and analyzed, and pronounced superior to the nickel of either Lancaster or Germany, the only two places on the globe where it is now mined.— Letter in Harrisburg Patriot.