We passed through some Side Cuts, as they are called. These are caves
opening on the sides of the avenues; and after running for some
distance, entering them again. Some of them exceed half a mile in
length; but most generally they are short. In many of them, "quartz,
calcedony, red ochre, gypsum, and salts are found." The walking, in
this part of the avenue, being rough, we progressed but slowly, until
we reached the Salts Room; here we found the walls and ceiling covered
with salts hanging in crystals. The least agitation of the air causing
flakes of the crystals to fall like snow. In the Salts Room are the
Indian houses, under the rocks--small spaces or rooms completely
covered--some of which contain ashes and cane partly burnt. The
_Cross Rooms_, which we next come to, is a grand section of this
avenue; the ceiling has an unbroken span of one hundred and seventy
feet, without a column to support it! The mouths of two caves are seen
from this point, neither of which we visited, and much to our loss, as
will appear from the following extract from the "Notes on the Mammoth
Cave, by E.F. Lee, Esq., Civil Engineer," in relation to one of
them--the Black Chambers:
"At the ruins in the Black Chambers, there are a great many large
blocks composed of different strata of rocks, cemented together,
resembling the walls, pedestals, cornices, etc.
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