Abstract
NEARLY a century has passed since the wonderful Mammoth Cave of Kentucky was found by a hunter who entered it in pursuit of a wounded bear. The cave is one of many which occur in the limestone regions of Kentucky and other States of the Central West. It is stated by Dr. Hovey that there are as many as four thousand sink-holes—one covering an area of not less than two thousand acres—and five hundred known caverns, in Edmonson County alone. The Mammoth Cave is not the most interesting from a scientific point of view, nor is it so beautifully decorated with stalactites as the adjacent White Cave, but it transcends the others in the grandeur of its dimensions. So far as is at present known, there is only one entrance to the cave; from it two principal lines of exploration have been laid out, and they are both described in detail in the manual before us.
The Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. An Illustrated Manual.
By Horace C. Hovey R. Ellsworth Call, A.M., Ph.D. Pp. v + 110. (Louisville: John P. Morton and Co., 1897.)
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The Mammoth Cave of Kentucky An Illustrated Manual. Nature 56, 493 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/056493a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/056493a0