town of the day

colebrook

and is it true, or is it just a story? we may never know..........

and the town of the day's legend of the day the colebrook cave

.................When I arrived on Monday evening, there were some twenty persons around the cavern and others in it. I borrowed a lantern and joined the ones inside. The mouth of the cavern is towards the southeast. If all the loose stones in and around it which seem to have fallen from the cliff above were removed, the cave at the mouth would be as near as I can judge, about 50 feet wide and 30 feet high. The air on entering has a peculiar smell which I can compare to nothing. I imagine the candle burnt less brilliantly than in the open air. For the first three or four rods the way is a good deal obstructed by sharp rocks, then comes a smooth gravelled floor as hard as macadamized road. Ten rods from the entrance we measured and found the width to be 83 feet and again at 30 rods we found it 67 feet. The sides are quite even, especially the east side which is as smooth as if it had been chiseled. The roof is broken and craggy. In some parts rising very high at others descending to within 10 feet of the floor. The flooring for the most part is level and smooth, consisting of stone and hard gravel.
We met with several deep pits into one of which we were near fallling. Two of them resembled wells. We sounded one of them to the depth of nine fathoms and another to the depth of five and one-half fathoms. In the first well we found water but the latter well was dry or appeared so. The main part of the cave is remarkably straight and uniform in width for the most part. It runs in a north and northeast direction for a quarter of a mile where it ends abruptly. We met with numerous openings at the right and left. Some large enough to admit a horse and carriage and others scarcely a man. We only marked them with chalk and passed on to the end of what seemed to be the main part of the cavern.
Here we stopped for a few moments. All stood without speaking gazing about with amazement and wonder. The silence was painful. No dropping of water or creaking of insects, not a sound could be heard, but the low suppresssed breathing of the company. It seemed as if I could hear their hearts beat - it had risen several degrees. The thermometer stood at 60 1/2 degrees.
As we prepared to retrace our steps, we discovered an opening on the west side a few rods from the termination of the part of the cavern we were in. We drew near and listened. There was a low murmuring sound as of a distant waterfall and the air which issued from it seemed colder and damper. This led up to suppose it must be of very great extent but we were too cold and weary to prosecute our researches farther at this time." ...............