THE ENCHANTMENT OF DISTANCE.

Southland Times, Issue 759, 4 December 1867, Page 3

THE ENCHANTMENT OF DISTANCE.

People go by the hundred — perhaps by the thousand — every year from this part of the country to see the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky-^at least they used to before the war. Scientific men and tourists have written volumes about its marvels until the fame of the cave has travelled all over the civilized world. All this time we have had quite as extraordinary a natural phenomenon, of a similar character, in our own state of New Xork, which, although also' yearly visited by great numbers, does not appear to have received its fair share of scientific or sentimental celebrity. This is Howe's Cave, in Schoharie county, a brief description of which, in a local journal, shows that it is worthy to take its place with the Kentucky wonder in our list of great natural curiosities of America. The distance already explored in Howe's Cave, says the journal alluded to, is over eight miles, and its depth from six hundred to one thousand feet below the surface of the earth. The stalactites of Howe's Cave are small but brilliant. Its chief und distinguishing glories, however, are its stalagmites, which are many times larger than any in Mammoth Cave. ' The temperature of the Mammoth Cave throughout the year is fifty-nine degrees, while that of Howe's Cave is only forty-eight degrees. This variation can probably be accounted for by the difference in latitude. The calcium light which has been | introduced with such effect in the Mammoth Cave has never been tried as yet in Howe's, which is only seen by the vague lipht of torch and candle. If this brilliant chemical light were turned upon the crystalline formations of the New York cave they would perhaps outshine those of its Kentucky rival in number, size, and splendor. Let the next party of visitor? try the experiment^ and give the mult to the public—New