Trip up mountain ❧ Forest fire ❧ Mr. Bellinger lost and found ❧ First Cave Exploration ❧ Leg injured
 | Page 2 - Aug, 14th 1878. - Had bacon straight for breakfast. Started out ahead with Judge Prim and Mr. Bellinger. Traveled all the way without seeing any deer. Crossed several fine streams of water. The mountain was very steep. [Same??] when going down the first [big?] ridge. We left the wagon and keg of wine at Basey’s Camp. Arrived at Elijah Davidson’s1, six miles from our camp at 10 o’clock. The [ladies / babies ??] of the other party were with us. Mr. Foudary carried the baby up the hill and thereby hangs a tale. Bellinger cracked a joke at the Judge’s expense about his smelling deer and finding soon after that he was near a sheep ranch. Mr. [F.?*] procured some milk and we had bread, butter, and milk for lunch. We are waiting for Mr. Fiddler to come up and pilot us to the Cave. Mr. Fiddler arrived with another party and at [11 / 12 ?] o’clock we started for the cave. Two girls started ahead. [Mrs / Miss ?] Laton2 was leader. A joke was the consequence. Mr. Fiddler [was?] leader and took us through the [damdest??]3 Footnotes: 1: Elijah Davidson is credited with the Cave's discovery in 1874 while on a hunting trip. He did not have much association with the cave after that time. 2: Perhaps this person (spelled Laton?) is the same as the Miss Layton later in the narrative 3: An adjective that ends with -dest. |
 | Page 03 road I ever saw. The distance from the sheep ranch is [reckoned] at 2 miles. Our trip was a rough one there were about a half doz. women with us, and three Baby[s?]. It [took] us several hours to arrive at camp from 12 [to]1 five. we encountered a heavy fire in the woods, which delayed us several hours. The ladies become quite frightened and were for going back. we have named [ Footnotes: 1: Compare this “to” to “to” in “Aug 13 to 19” on outside cover 2: Looks like 3.8, but compare to the 32 miles from Mr. Steven’s to Jacksonville (page 1) |
 | Page 04 had been shooting and [yelling] for several hours before his arrival. we had given him up for lost, but he insisted on his not being lost, and [would] without doubt have arrived at the Sheep ranch [some time] during the night. The hunters from the other party failed to kill any thing. We are about 40 miles from Jacksonville. On [arriving] at the cave [Miss?] [Laton]1 [+?]2 [two] other young ladies Mr. [Birdsley] and myself went into the cave by the upper entrance.3 The opening is just [barely??] [wide] enough for a person4 to enter, but after going [twenty?] feet, the [apartment?] of the cave assumes [larger] proportions and the [sides??] are [soft?]5 from contact with the air[.] the [cavities?] are quite narrow in places requiring [considerable?] [exertion] to get along and that [too] by crawling on all fours. after getting in some fifty feet the [grottoes?] assume fantastic appearance and the stalactites and stalagmites present a varied and strangely [beautiful?] [picture] as hanging from some [chamber?] [grotesquely?] [calsomined]6, [eight] to [ten] feet in [hight]7 and the [same]8 distance wide. with a Footnotes: 1: Possibly Miss Layton, referenced later. Hard to tell. 2: Maybe "+ two". But this is the only place he uses “+” for "and". Alternatively, the “+” could have been a line that was crossed out. 3: Now known at the "110 Exit" 4: Not, of course, as it looks (“parson”) 5: Possibly a reference to moonmilk formations that occur in that area 6: According to en.wikitionary.org, “calsomined” is an alternative form of “calcimined”, and “calcimine” is a kind of whitewash. 7: height 8: Compare first letter, that looks like “o”, to “s” in “scene” at the bottom of page 9 |
 | Page 05 length of twenty to 30 feet, transparent stalactites depending1 from the [arch?] over head are much [like?] glass [tubes??], are hollow and are not to be [told??] [from] glass [tubes?] a [sixteenth?] of an inch in diameter. others [possessed?] many [strange?] forms being like animals, [ears] and [tusks], [ Footnotes: 1: Hanging down, as in "descending" or “pendulous” 2: There looks to be a cross above the crossed-out word. It could be a badly-written “of”, but is more likely a second attempt to write, and a second cross-out. 3: Not sure if word or just mark 4: The hanging stroke appears to have been an error, and is crossed out. |
 | Page 06 to keep one[’]s reckoning. Some of the chambers have a [dull] appearance and are only [noticable?] for their [lofty] and [?] form. We did not go down into the lower cave but after winding round for about 1/2 an hour we came out. during the exploration I injured myself on a sharp rock making me [quite?] [lame?][.] The grass for our horses is quite scarce, and for fear we would [lose?]1 them all [hands?] tied their horses securely for the night. We were quite apprehensive about the fire ranging in the woods, but it [died] away before we went to bed. During the evening a discussion arose as to the direction to the sheep ranch. I claimed it was [East?], [Foudary] said North and the rest north by East. Mr. Fiddler was my [bunky?]2 for the night, night [cloud? / closed?] in and soon the camp was wrapped in slumber. Footnotes: 1: Looks like “loose” or “losse”, but in context seems like “lose” 2: Wiktionary says “bunkie” is slang for “bunkmate”, and the jump from “bunkie” to “bunky” is an obvious one, but I do not know if “bunkie” was in use in the 1870s. On page 16 Miller again says he bunks with Fiddler. |