The cave mania, with the exception of the periodic political madness, and the mormon and second advent craziness, seem to be in the ascendant just at present; for it is hardly possible to pick up a newspaper which has not an account of some stupendous cavern, some new-discovered wonder, sprinkled (the account) with a due quantity of scares (!!) and interjections without number. These caves, as well as the descriptions thereof, (the caves) vary from rods to furlongs, and from furlongs to miles-aye miles in verity, for thereto we ourselves can bear witness. In fact our country abounds in these subterranean wonders, and curiosity once excited, they are brought to light by some active adventurer, and straightway become the wonder of the hour.
Within thirty-five miles of the city there are at least half a score, five of which we have visited, and therefore feel ourselves privileged to speak something in the tone of a connoisseur in such matters. Without, however, stopping to speak of the large caverns in Schoharie county, to which we made allusion some time since, we purpose now to give a brief description of those only which may be said to lie within the sound of our church bells.
Clarksville, a name by the way destined to figure largely in some unwritten history of the civil wars of the nineteenth century, is the appellation of a neat little village situated about twelve miles from our goodly burgh, in a romantic dell of the ever renowned, the deeply classical Helderberghs. It is true this place, so fraught with historical recollections, having been the head-quarters of the valiant armies of "law and order" during the bloody [The official returns were, "two men shot in the neck, and one badly scalded with cold water."] campaign of 1840, we say it is true this place has neither its church nor its theatre, mor dot makt nicht, 't hat, omas, twa top housen [Domestic Dutch, signifying that there are two taverns], and divers and sundry other edifices. It can readily be supposed, therefore, that the architectural wonders of Clarksville did not tempt us to pay it a visit, but on the contrary nothing less than the fame of wild and romantic scenery, and the wonderful caves in its vicinity. We need not detail the minutiae of our expedition thither, how we went, or when, or how we got rid thereby of parading up and down the parched streets under the command of the six footed warrior who exercises the rag-tail and flood-wood militia of our city, in military tactics, and how we felicitated ourselves on this happy escape from said service, and how we consoled ourselves that we saved one dollar, though we spent three by the operation--all this we will not detail--suffice it to say, we found ourselves between two days in the glory-crowned village above mentioned.
The place and the country around are indeed wild and romantic, and were it not so near home would certainly be the resort of the fashionable excitement-hunter. Here are the dry beds of streams, worn through the piled up rocks and gullied deep by the irresistible force of torrents that must have raged along them for ages, overhung by beetling crags that threaten every moment to crush the gazer-forming scenes as truly grand, not to say terrible, as are to be found in this portion of our country. Fossils are abundant, and no place offers a richer field for the scientific or curious man, as a glance at our hurried collection will attest.
But the caves were the principal objects of our visit. There are two of them; the smaller one, whose mouth is literally in the village, we were unable to enter, owing to the recent rains which had swelled the stream that runs through it, entirely cutting off all admittance immediately at the entrance. This is, however, only about one hundred and twenty rods long, although it is certain that it connects by an intraversable passage with the larger one, inasmuch as the same stream runs through both.
The entrance to the larger one is above one fourth of a mile from the village, and is a conical opening some 40 or 50 feet over at the top, and terminating in a rough and somewhat precipitous descent through an opening, comfortably large for a medium sized person. The rock is lime stone, of course, and the main body of the cave runs nearly due north, along the stream spoken of above, which is of such size that at its debouchure from the hill side, below the village, its waters are dammed and a saw and carding and fulling mill are kept in constant operation by this supply alone. There are a few large rooms in this cave, and its general character is of a large tunnel, partially filled on either side of the stream with loose rocks and banks of earth, incrusted with carbonate of lime. Some portions of the way, where it is impossible to follow the stream, owing to the depth or the narrowness of the opening through which it flows, we found it necessary to lower a notch and even debase ourselves after the creeping and crawling reptiles of the earth, and get along e'en as best we could. Of course, in the cool, exhilarating atmosphere of the cave, such trifles did not dampen the spirits of the party, and jolly old Momus more than once "startled old echo in his cave." An occasional growl, and, we regret to say, an occasional half suppressed malediction, betokened that some poor wight had made the conclusive discovery that block heads were in truth the proper heads for cave hunters. In fact, sympathy was left above ground, and he who complained of a bruised head, or a barked shin, never made his griefs known more than once. Onward we went, crawling, leaping, walking, straddling, floundering through the water, trailing through the mud for the space of a mile or more, and then we were brought to a dead stand-before us was a lake of water, spreading onward under the rocks, and oh dolor! no boat. Deep it was, deep and black, and the stones we threw in sunk with a dead and sullen plunge, telling too plainly that it was not fordable, and swimming was out of the question. What now? was the question that burst from every lip, and each mud bedaubed individual looked at his fellow, as if he expected him to solve the question. No guide, no boat, and, as a consequence, no go!
However, one of the party scrambled along the precipitous and slippery rocks, that lined the lake for some distance, and finally succeeded in discovering a small opening to the left, large enough perhaps to admit a man's head, provided it was not too large! By dint of labor the pioneer, the smallest of the party entered; and the more bulky ones toiled and scratched and squeezed through the aperture, to find their progress arrested at a few paces, and that a small room, with a few stalactites, was the terminus of the opening. It was soon found necessary to evacuate this pent up place, which was done by protruding the nether extremities first.
After collecting some beautiful formations from this wonderful cavern, and traced our names on the rock, which even here is full of fossil remains, we retraced our steps, surveying more leisurely the wonders and curiosities of this subterranean passage.
The stream in this cave undoubtedly extends for many miles, and with the aid of a small light boat, we doubt not, may be explored to a great distance.
No ill effects may be anticipated from a visit here, on the contrary, the visiter, after the first impression of heat and sultriness on emerging is past, feels invigorated and refreshed.