A Book of the United States. Various
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‘The three articles above enumerated are first in quantity and importance; but there are several others, which deserve notice as subjects of philosophical curiosity. The sulphate of lime, or plaster of Paris, is to be seen variously formed; ponderous, crystallized, and impalpable, or soft, light, and rather spongy. Vestiges of the sulphate of iron, are also to be seen in one or two places. Small specimens of the carbonate, and also the nitrate of magnesia, have been found. The rocks in the cave principally consist of carbonate of lime, or common limestone.
‘I had almost forgotten to state, that near the forks of the cave are two specimens of painting, probably of Indian origin. The one appears to be a savage, with something like a bow in his hand, and furnishes the hint that it was done when that instrument of death was in use. The other is so much defaced, that it is impossible to say what it was intended to represent.’
Carver’s Cave.—‘About twelve miles below the new garrison at St. Peter’s,’ says Mr. Schoolcraft, ‘we stopped to examine a remarkable cavern, on the east banks of the Mississippi, called Wakon-teebe, by the Narcotah or Sioux Indians, but which, in compliment to the memory of its first European visitor, should be denominated Carver’s Cave. It is situated in a rock of the most beautiful white sand-stone, at the head of a small valley about four hundred yards from the banks of the river. Its mouth is about sixty or seventy feet wide and twenty in height, but the former soon decreases to about twenty feet, and the latter to seven. This width gradually lessens as you advance during the first hundred yards, but the height remains nearly the same, so that a man can walk without stooping. Then it tapers into a narrow passage, where it is necessary to creep, which suddenly opens into a spacious chamber. From this a narrow crevice continues as far as it has been explored. Some of our party pursued it four hundred yards by the light of wax candles. It is very damp and chilly. There is a handsome stream of pure water running from its mouth. The temperature of the air in the cave was fifty-four degrees, that of the water forty-seven. As it is situated in sand-stone rock, it affords no stalactites, or spars. Some parts of the rock at the mouth are colored green, probably by the carbonate of copper. The bed of the brook is composed of a crystalline sand of the most snowy whiteness, originating from the disintegration of the surrounding walls. Scattered over this are a number of small pebbles, of so intensely black a color, as to create a pleasing contrast, when viewed through the medium of a clear stream. These, on examination, proved to be masses of limestone, granite, and quartz, colored externally by a thin deposit of earthy matter, and I conclude the color to proceed from the gallic acid, with which the water, percolating into the cavern, through the beds of oak leaves of the superincumbent forest, may be partially saturated. This cave has been visited by most persons who have passed up the Mississippi, if we may judge from the number of names found upon the walls. Among them, we were informed, was that of Captain Carver, who visited it in 1768, but we did not observe it. His grant of land from the Indians is dated in this cave, but the cave itself appears to have undergone a considerable alteration since that period, for he says that “about twenty feet from the entrance begins a lake, the water of which is transparent, and extends to an unsearchable distance.” As the rock is of a very friable nature, and easily acted upon by running water, it is probable that the lake has been discharged, thus enlarging the boundaries of the cave. He also remarks, “at a little distance from this dreary cavern, is the burying-place of several bands of the Nawdowessie (Sioux) Indians. Though these people have no fixed residence, living in tents, and abiding but a few months in one spot, yet they always bring the bones of their dead to this place; which they take the opportunity of doing when the chiefs meet to hold their councils, and to settle the public affairs for the ensuing summer.” We noticed no bones or traces of interment about the cave, but perhaps a further examination of the adjacent region would have led to a discovery.’
In Kentucky and Tennessee, caves are numerous, which appear to have been used for burial-places. In the county of Ulster, in New York, is a cave three quarters of a mile in length, caused by a stream running under ground. The rock which constitutes the roof and sides of the cave is a dark colored limestone, containing impressions of shells, calcareous spar, and beautiful white and yellow stalactites. At one end is a fall of water, the depth of which has not been fathomed. At Rhinebeck, near the Hudson, is a cave in which a narrow entrance leads to several spacious rooms, abounding with columns of stalactites. At Chester, in Warren county, there is a stream which passes under a natural bridge, and among many deep caverns; the waters enter in two streams, unite in the subterranean passage, and issue in a single current under a precipice sixty feet in height.
In the Laurel Mountain, in Pennsylvania, is a cavern with a very narrow entrance, and various winding passages, which has been traversed two miles. It is formed of a soft sandstone, and its roof is covered with millions of bats. At Durham in Bucks county, on the Delaware, is a cave in the limestone rock, abounding with pools and rivulets of water. At Carlisle is another somewhat similar, in which human bones have been discovered.
GENERAL REMARKS ON CAVES.
Caves or grottoes are natural fissures in the solid crust of the earth, with walls and a natural roof. They are sometimes of immense extent and depth, and frequently the first excavation is only the vestibule to another much larger and deeper. Eldon Hole, in Derbyshire, has been sounded with a line of more than nine thousand six hundred feet, but without reaching its bottom. A cavern near Frederickshall, Norway, has been estimated at eleven thousand feet in depth. Many caverns are remarkable for various natural curiosities. The most interesting are those in which the dropping of water has caused the formation of stalactites, either suspended from the vaults of the caverns in the shape of long crystals, or assuming fantastic forms on the floor and along the wall. Antiparos and Peak caves in Derbyshire, England, owe their celebrity to those formations. Other caves are strewed with petrified bones, and have evidently been the burial-places of generations of human beings.
There are caverns which contain deep pits of water, or wells, of such an extent as to acquire the name of subterranean lakes. In some are the sources, and in others the receptacles, of large streams. In Norway you may sometimes walk upon an arched calcareous floor, and hear the roar of torrents under your feet. In Russia, many caverns have been evidently formed by means of water, and even masses of ice.
Fingal’s Cave in the Isle of Staffa, on the western coast of Scotland, is the grandest in the known world. Its sides are formed of majestic columns of basalt, which are almost as regular as if they had been formed by art. These columns support a lofty roof, under which the sea rolls its waves, while the vastness of the entrance admits the light of day to the recesses of the cave. The origin of these basaltic formations is uncertain.
The caves of Kirkdale, in England, and Gailenreuth, in Germany, are remarkable for the quantities of bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, and hyena found in them. The mine of fluor spar, in Castleton, Derbyshire, passes through several stalactic caverns. Other caverns in England contain subterraneous cascades. In the Rock of Gibraltar there are a number of stalactic caverns, of which the principal is called St. Michael’s, and is one thousand feet above the sea. The most famous caves of Germany are those of Bauman and Bielstein, in the Hartz.
Caves sometimes exhale poisonous vapors. Of these, the most remarkable is near Naples, named the Grotto del Cane. In Iceland, there are many formed by the lava from its volcanoes. In the volcanic country near Rome, are many natural cavities of great extent and coolness, which form pleasant places of resort in the hot weather. The grottoes in the Cevennes Mountains, in France, are both numerous and extensive, and abound in objects of curiosity. In South America is the cavern of Guacharo, which is said to extend for leagues.
CHAPTER IX.—ISLANDS.
MOST of the coast of Maine is thickly strewn with islands. The largest is Mount Desert, on the west side of Frenchman’s Bay; it is fifteen miles long, and twelve broad. Many fine islands lie in Penobscot Bay, as Long Island, on which is the town of Islesborough; the Fox Islands, containing the town of Vinalhaven; and Deer Isle, on the east side of the bay, about eight miles from Castine.
The Isles of Shoals belong partly to New Hampshire,