The Carver Centenary

Author : Minnesota Historical Society
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781332109449
Total Pages : 28 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (94 download)

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Download or read book The Carver Centenary written by Minnesota Historical Society and published by . This book was released on 2015-08-04 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Carver Centenary: An Account of the Celebration The cave is only accessible by ascending a narrow, steep passage that lies near the brink of the river," &c. In the main, the above description is yet a faithful one. The entrance to the cave, broad as it is, is now almost choked up by detritus from the bind'above, partly composed of masses of sandstone crumbled oil" by the frost, and partly of rubbish which the workmen in a stone quarry at the top of the bluff have thrown over. Still there is an easy and safe entrance in the upper corner of the mouth, along the bottom of which passage-way flows a stream of sparkling, pure water. The track of the Winona and Saint Paul Railway is graded along the bank of the river, a few feet in front of, and slightly lower than the mouth of the cave. Carver says that the cave was, at the time of his visit, "only accessible by ascending a narrow, steep passage that lies near the brink of the river." This was doubtless the case then, but the frosts and Hoods afterwards crumbled down the bank in front of it, so that the mouth of the cave can easily be seen from the river. After entering the doorway of the cave, the ceiling suddenly expands, and rises to a dome of considerable height. Twenty-eight feet from the entrance ("about twenty," as Carver estimates it) " begins a lake, " Sic. Towards the mouth side it has a beautiful beach of white sand. From this side, the water gradually deepens towards the rear end of the cavern, until, at the farthest extremity, it is ten feet or more in depth, and so clear that a person sitting in one end of the boat may see the bottom by the light of a candle held over the other end. On all the sides of this lake (excepting the opening) the walls rise perpendicularly. They are stained with water to a height about five feet above the present waterline, showing that the lake must have risen to that height when the entrance was choked up as it was when Pike visited it in 1806. At the outer edge of the lake the height of the roof, or inner side of the doorway arch, is about five feet, and the width about 40 feet. It soon grows a little wider, and the roof expands into a capacious dome. Its apex, as near as we could judge from the flickering lights, must be some 20 feet above the water. The widest part of the cave is about 50 feet from the landing, after which it gradually narrows to the end of the cave. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.