Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1895 — COUNTRY OF CAVES. [ARTICLE]

COUNTRY OF CAVES.

Another Mammoth On# Found Neat Brookhavan, Ky. Mr. Hugo Sultan, of New York, who i 9 an enthusiastic naturalist, was in Cincinnati a few days ago en route home from Kentucky, says the Cincinnati Times. During this trip, he, in company with Professor Gordon Curry, dean of the College of Pharmacy, of Louisville, and a botanist of considerable note, spent a day in,the neighborhood of Rockhaven, a Kentucky village about thirty miles from Louisville, pn tho Louisville, St. Louis and Toledo railroad, in search of rase insects and plants. While on this search, near Rockhaven, climbing hills and crossing dales, they discovered what proved to be the mouth of a cave heretofore unknown, and which is reached only after a hard climb by a steep hillside. The mouth is in the side of tho lull and is so small that to enter it is necessary to crawl, but the opening soon grows larger, until finally it is a dome. The cave Is over three miles long, and is tilled with stalactites and stalagmites. Mr. Sultan is very enthusiastic over the discovery. He said : “The cave is one of the prettiest I have evor seen in my life. It is fully threo miles long, as near as I can judge, and we found many beautiful stalactites and stalagmites in all processes of formation. Prof. Curry fouAd lakes of the calcareous matter from which they are formed, and some of tho half formed stalactites were as beautiful as any I ever saw in my life. About half w r ay in the* cave, or a mile and a half from tho mouth, he found an underground river, which wound across the rooms in a zigzag course. “The water was as clear ae and very cold, being of a temDerature of about 40 degrees, or near tho freezing point. We were greatly surprised to find that it was as cold us ice water, while the temperature of the cave was as warm as 00 degrees. In some places the water was four or five feet deep, while In other places it widened out into little pools. We waded the stream and went to the end of the cave, or as far as we could see that it extended. “It was after we had crossed the river that I found that which interested me even more than the discovery and exploration of the cave. This find consisted of some very rare insects of the beetle species, whose technical name is Anopthamus tenuis. I have never seen any of their kind anywhere else. They have no eyes, and nature seems to have made no provisions in them for those organs. They are a small insect,and nest in the crevices between the rocks of the chambers. The only way in which I could get them from these crevices was by dashing water against the walls of the cave.