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Mammoth Cave of Kentucky

According to the best authorities 3,746 years intervened between the first erection of the obelisk and its removal to New York. Its builder, Thotmes III., is said to be identical with the Pharaoh who persecuted the Jews and was afterward overwhelmed with his host in the waters of the Red Sea. During the existence of this latest ornament to Central Park, 125 generations have walked over the surface of the globe, and its figured shaft recalls the days when Moses and Aaron stood before the king and commanded him to allow Israel to depart. This obelisk was presented to the City of New York by the ex-Khédive of Egypt, and the work of bringing it home was given to Lieutenant-Commander H. H. Gorringe, of the United States Navy. The express charges were paid by a wealthy New Yorker, believed to be Mr. William H. Vanderbilt. The machinery for moving the stone was all made in this country. It consists of a pair of iron trunnions and a pair of steel derricks. The stone was carried overland seven miles to the Government dock at Alexandria, and was put in the hold of the steamship Dessoug, a vessel of 1,600 tons. The vessel reached New York City July 20, 1880. The work of moving it across the city was done skillfully. (See page 571).

MAMMOTH CAVE OF KENTUCKY. - It is like trying to describe the indescribable to give any full idea of this the most extensive cavern in the world. Think of a subterranean city 400 feet under the surface, full of monuments, theaters, temples, domes, minarets, and every device of architecture that skill could frame and taste adorn. Imagine the streets extending among towering buildings for a hundred miles. A hush as silent as the tomb prevails. Black, mysterious rivers, full of sightless fish, crawl darkly through the ebon caverns, while the exhalations of their silent tide cluster on roof and wall, and garland them with ornaments of cusp and alabaster. It would take too much space to attempt anything like a detail of this extraordinary place. At places are narrow chasms that admit the explorer with great difficulty; at other places the way grows wide, and the eyes are greeted with vast domes, from which are suspended huge chandelier-like forms, like purest alabaster ; grand chambers that far excel in size and beauty the famed hall of Westminster; while in other places you see fac-similes of great Gothic cathedrals, with their tall clustering shafts, pinnacled altars, exquisitely delicate, as though from the hand of the most cunning artificer. Again you stand trembling on the edge of a chasm over 200 feet in depth, and by means of a torch thrown into the abyss reveal fresh wonders to the beholder; there runs a black river, full of eyeless fish. In another part of the Cave is seen what seems to be a colossal theater--tier rises above tier, till they reach the huge overhanging roof. One lonely passage has been explored clear fifty miles in one direction. One river is nearly a mile across, and in some parts the r;