" Proceeding on, I entered the haunted room, (so called,) in which is an arm-chair formed of petrified rock, and one and a quarter mile front the mouth of the cave. Near to .this is a spring of water falling from the arch above, re markably clear, and pleasant to the taste, having an agree able sweetish flavour. In another branch is a heap of pe t•ifactions, resembling furnace cinders, a pond, Ste.
" A strong current of cold air issues from the cave, per ceptible at the mouth before descending. The current sets in during the winter season ; but the temperature within is not affected by the change, it being uniform throughout the year. Human tracks, imprinted on the sand, and from four to twelve inches in length, are to he seen in some of the rooms ; and pieces of cane or reed strewed along the paths, having, in all probability, been formerly used for lights by those who then frequented, and not improbably inhabited, the place. In many places are large pillars of petrifaction, formed by water dropping from the arch, and which seem to support it. One (or rather part of one) is called the Bell ; it is four feet long, and ex tends half way down to the bottom of the cave, the height of the arch in this place being about eight feet. A sound is occasioned by striking it with a stone, similar to that pro duced by striking a cannon of pretty large calibre with a piece of wood. The height of the arch varies in different places. In some it is estimated at fifty feet ; and in others, a person is obliged to stoop almost to the ground to pass along. The arch, in many places, has a beautiful appear ance, being that of a plastered ceiling. In one or two pla ces which I particularly noticed, and where the passage is wide, it presented a strong resemblance to a spacious cir cular room. The effect was produced by the light of lamps, which showed distinctly the white and smooth pe trifactions above, and which was gradually lost by the shades becoming darker, as the power of the light was les sened upon the more remote parts, and until the eyes, by following them, were carried to silent darkness. The de scent (a small ascent in some places excepted) is generally gradual as you athance inwards. The most rapid is down a rather steep hill, of about 40 feet in height. By stamp ing occasionally, I discovered that I passed over several vaults, or probably other rooms or branches. The subter raucous sound produced by stamping was not terrific, as I had been lcd to believe, before I made the experiment." In Plate CCCXLI. we have given a representation of this remarkable cave, which will be understood from the following references to the engraving.
1. Mouth.
2. Indian mummy.
3. Right hand chamber.
4. Mountain room ; the entrance is from the top of the mountain.
5. Little room, with a spring and two pits.
6. Springs.
7. Sand room. • 8. Part of the haunted room.
9. Sick room.
10. Haunted room.
11. Springs.
12. Horn room.
13. Pit 100 feet deep, and water falling several hundred feet.
14. Part of the deserted chamber, which runs under the salt rooms.
15. Deserted chamber.
16. This room runs under the deserted chamber.
17. A large spring falls several hundred feet.
18. Glauber salts (sulphate of soda) found here.
19. Mockason room.
20. A large room or pit above 50 feet deep.
21. Salts.
22. Ground room.
23. Basket room.
24. Sembin's room.
25. Weeping willow. This room runs about a quarter of a mile, and then returns to the same place.
26. Two springs in two large sink holes.
27. Beekman's room.
28. Miller's room.
29. Hell's gate.
30. Devil's chamber, supposed to be ten miles from the mouth.
When the mummy was brought to New York for exhi bition, it was examined by Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill, who has given the following account of it, in a letter addressed to the earl of Buchan, and published in the 2d volume of the Transactions of the Society of Scottish 4ntiquaries. It was a perfect exsiccation. All the solids were preserved as entire as in an anatomical preparation, or rather as dried bacon. The posture was squatting, with one hand em bracing the right knee, and the palm of the other put un der the left buttock. It was inclosed in four distinct wrap pers. First, a mantle of cloth and feathers, exactly like those worn at this day by the chiefs of Wakush and Owhy. hee. Second, a shawl of cloth, manufactured after the manner now practised by the natives of the Sandwich and Fegee islands. In both these, the material of the cloth is neither flax nor hemp, nor the product of any vegetable known in America as an indigenous plant ; and the prepa ration, the twist, and the manner of connecting the threads, is wholly unlike any fabric of the present indigenes, or the European emigrants. Dr. Mitchill, and the most distin guished persons of New York, were decidedly of opinion, that there was a wonderful similitude between these cloths and various cloths brought from the Pacific islands, with which they compared them. The hair of the mummy is a brown sorrel, or dark chesnut, and not either a sandy or a black. Thirdly, the next wrapper was a deer-skin, whose hair had been cut away by a sharp instrument, that had left incisions on the hide, exactly like those on the pelt of a bea ver by a hatter's knife ; and, fourthly, the outside envelope was a deer's skin that had been simply dried, without any cutting, or marks of any kind.