Rambles in the Mammoth Cave

Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, during the Year 1844: By a Visiter was published in 1845. The book begins with a description of various routs leading to the cave. It talks of graded roads, steamers, log cabins to stay at and various other bits of information for visitors. Visitors are welcome to visit the two hundred and twenty-six Avenues in the Cave; forty-seven Domes; eight Cataracts, and twenty-three Pits. This is an excellent example of an early tour book. "Independent of the attractions to be found in the Cave, there is much above ground to gratify the different tastes of visiters. There is a capacious ball-room, ninety feet by thirty, with a fine band of music, --a ten-pin alley, --romantic walks and carriage-drives in all directions, rendered easy of access by the fine road recently finished. The many rare and beautiful flowers in the immediate vicinity of the Cave, invite to exercise, and bouquets as exquisite as were ever culled in garden or green-house, may be obtained even as late as August. The fine sport the neighborhood affords to the hunter and the angler--Green river, just at hand, offers such "store of fish," as father Walton or his son and disciple Cotton, were they alive again, would love to meditate and angle in! --and the woods! Capt. Scott or Christopher North himself, might grow weary of the sight of game, winged or quadruped."