The Sun.
London, England, 1849-07-19 00:00:00

_ .
which shows the starry firmament to greater advantage.
The stars are formed by the sparkling gypsum in the
dark limestone, and a more complete optical illusion
Dame Nature never called into existence. We felt as it
we should never tire gazing on this, and ex-
patiating to each other upon its wonders. Stephen
asked us how we should like to have all the lights
extinguished, to try the effect of it in that way,
which we readily agreed to; but not a particle
of anything could we see. There was, of course, not the
smallest ray of light—there could not be, for we were
two mires from the mouth of the cave, and 170 feet
below the surrace of the earth. I put my finger close to
my eye, but could see nothing. When no one spoke, the
silence was awful. I don't know what the others were
thinking of in the midst of this total eclipse, but I could
not help thinking, now, if Stephen should have forgot his
matches we shall he in a fine fix. I spoke to him of this
afterwards, when he said be should soon have got lights
for us if he had forget his matches, for he knows the
cave so well, having been a guide in it for thirteen years,
that he could have forced his way to the mouth. This
Star-Chamber is ono of the most pleasing sights in the.
cave. Not far from from it are the remains of some
small houses that were built some years ar:;,o for con--
suinptive patients. The air is so pure and the tempe-
rature sot qual, that they enjoyed very good health while
they remained in the cave, but as soon as they went
above ground they became as bad as ever ; the idea,
therefore, of making the cave an hospital for consump-
tion has been abandoned. I forgot to say that while we
were admiring the wonders of the Starry Chamber we
sang a sacred trio, the effect of which was beautiful, for
everything was so still—no interruption by whisperers,
or those persons who arc-not aware that it is the height
of rudeness to speak while any one is singing—the voices
sounded large and full. The sublimity of the scene could
not altogether withdraw the attention of our utility
friend from the things of this earth, for while we were
gazing in astonishment on the scene around us, he asked
the whether, as I came from London, I had ever seen a
work on the art of brewing by fermentation, and
without yeast 1 The Star-Chamber was the extent
of our walk in the Main Cave to day. We re-
turned as far-the Giant's Coffin, behind which we
entered an avenue, and descended some 12 or 14 steps,
then through a very low and narrow passage into the
Deserted Chambers, which we got to by crawling some
part of the way on our hands and knees. The first or
the Deserted Chambers is called the Wooden Bowl. from
the fact of a wooden bowl having been found in it by the
miners some years ago. At a short distance from this
bowl we stopped to dine, sitting on the edge of a large
fiat rock, which we used as a dining-table. Close by
there was a spring of clear, delicious water. We enjoyed
our repast amazingly; drank in the pure. unadulterated
water to all our friends round St. Paul's; had some songs
alter dinner, then resumed our walk. Our attention was
first directed to the Sidesaddle Pit, which is about 60
feet deep; and to prevent one's having a chance of falling
into it, it is railed round by spars of sassafras tree, on
one of which are two sprouts, which made their appear-
ance about a month ago, and are looked upon with in-
terest, for there is no other sign of vegetation within the
place. The ceiling here, from water oozing through
the stone, is just like honeycomb. A little further on
we come to the Bottomless Pit, a frightful chasm with a
fragile wooden bridge across it. A piece of lighted
paper thrown from the bridge into the pit, shows us the
depth of it, which, from the water to the top of the
dome above us, is 280 feet. As we found that the
splendid dome over heads had no name, we called it St.
Paul's. and insisted that Stephen should henceforth call
it by that name, and no other.
As we go along we see on the roof of the avenue the
most beautiful stalactite formations—rosettes, kc., in
innumerable variety; there is indeed here a mixture of
the sublime and beautiful. We come to the I! Hall.
well named from its appearance, go through the Arch,
magnificence
grich
eafilt Labyrinth,
places
lenanocreheo,dot afunt
shdtehaget moat-beautifullyosacntenaeG
arches that can be seen, return through what is called
nowt
the
eo
ordinary witness.
had Beef' to astonish us, we were not prepared for the
t
size of a window, told us to lay down our lamps behind
us, then he left us. By and bye we discovered him on a
point a considerable way above us, and he lighted one of
his_Bengals and unfolded the wonders of the dome to us.
e
It is nearly 300 feet in height, and we were standing
aperture
te un rw,
s e raboomu e. formed
Much natural
a s
w we
about half way up. The sides of the dome are fluted,
and hare the appearance of having been polished, for the
water is still trickling down. It is utterly impossible to
give any idea of the splendour of this place when lighted
up. We had not seen half enough of it. We called
for another Bengal light, but Stephen had not one more
left, so we were obliged to leave, which we did, expresi-
ing our determination to visit the dome again in our
next ramble.

We had now been five hours in the cave, and
as we had more than two miles to walk to the mouth,
we set off on our homeward route, and. passed
again some of our old acquqintances, the
tiiant's Coffin, the Church, walked a little
way down Audribow's Avenue, and finally we saw the
light of day glimmering before us, and as we drew
nearer to the mouth I thought the sun never shone so
beautifully before, and that the green grass and the
foliage of the trees, in fact the whole face of nature, was
more lovely than ever. When fairly out of the cave
we felt as if hot air was being blown upon us, so op-
pressively warm did the atmosphere feel. And so
finished our first day in the Mammoth Cave. We re-
turned to the hotel, spent the evening in thinking over
and talking of the wonders we had seen, then went to
bed prevy early, to prepare ourselves for being up be-
times to start upon