The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-02-17
ALONE IN A DEsEsTEEs 5EENg.

our exchanges of recent date, of a lone
adventure of his in q mine, undertaken
on Sunday last, which he says no small
sum would induce him TO repeat, owing
to the great danger there is of being
crushed or shut in by the caves-not that
there is anything else to be feared-oh,
no! Being impressed with the idea that
he could find paying ore in one Of our
mines (we are not at liberty TO say what
one), in which no regular work had been
done for some years, he determined upon
stolen trip of inspection into the wilder
ness of the old workings. He carried
with him but a small prospecting pick,
light rope ladder, about sixteen feet in
length, half dozen candles ard box of
matches. Thus equipped he boldly en-
tered a tunnel leading into the old works
upon vein at a depth of several hundred
feet below the surface. Upon reaching
the spacious old chamber, followed out
years ago in the vein, there reigned such
an oppressive silence that, as he stood
alone in the middle of one Of the great
caverncus openings and held aloft his can
die, lie could hardly prevail upon himself
to move. AS the moisture of the place
settled down upon his beard and pene-
tratad his clothing, so did all manner Of
supcrstitious fears settle around his heart
and penetrate his soul. AT every slep the
old floor gave out Il hollow, clankiag
sound, and he could hardly move forward
a dozen PAGES before he was overcome by
a feeling that some person or thing was
following him. Ashamed of such weak>
ness, he would try to shake off The thought
nothing was following, and ii would be
childish TO look around-it would be an
act altogether unworthy of a man. a
step or two, and an ugly, raw craunch
under his feet, with apparently an an
swerIng craunch behind him He must
look this time but does so with a smile
such as one would smile into the face
of ghost-but sees nothing. After
many facings about, this way and that,
he in some degree shakes off the feeling
of being followed, and, with what might
be called tempered holiness, passes thro'
several old chambers and arrives at the
dark mouth of an old incline. Taking a
sweeping look in all directions to see that
there is nothing bad in sight, he enters the
yawning incline and faces the inky dark
ness and the chill, musty air that rises
from vast ranges of caverns below. Down
he crawls, only stopping once TO assure
himself by one good, leisurely Hook that
nothing is standing at the mouth Of the
incline gazing down upon him, Down,
down lie goes, peeriug now to the right,
now to the left, into great galleries as be
passes them, ill at last the air becomes
misty with the dropping of water.
Loud and musical the sound rings
through The great cavernous place which
spreads out IN all directions from the foot
of the incline, at which he has at last ar
rived, and where he seats himself to rest
and gather resolution. Hundreds of feet
below the surface and below the nearest
ray of the sun, he seems seated upon the
brink of that other world fabed to exist
within the outer shell Of our own The
thousand tiny, trickling streams and
showers of heavier dTiPpings from on high
from far up, narrow wines and oozing
from the broad faces of the lofty lode,
falling into pools all about-send abroad
a sound which is now as OF children NJ
play, calling TO each other at distance ;
now as of bells, with the intermingling OF
fute-ike voices and again, like firmly
sounded random notes upon a piano
Gusts of AIR. loaded with darkness and
filled with dampness-- seemingly the weary
breathing of the place-come and go a
halo forms about his candle to keep back
the encroaching mists, and taken all in all.
saprpS no ylape for mort
Here upon this floor is where he hopes
to make some discovery hopes to find
behind the diIapidated tagging, at the end
Of some drift in The face of some chamber,
vein of the precious ore that escaped the
workmen of former years Here is the
place, but now his courage is almost gone
BE remembers AL the stories he has heard
from the German miners of their Cobalt.
a species of gnone or subterranean devil
which, clothed as miners, are seen in the
lonely depths of the mines gliding about
the chambers and peering out from among
the timbers, or are heard to scream, to
groan pitifully or to laugh wildly, He
also remembered that more than one poor
fellow had met his death in the very level
Nbot AhJ OSAOtC CT,
all these things, he bad the courage to
rise up and venture forth upon The reeking
and rotten old fioors-though he was
obliged to turn and look 20 see that moth
ing followed in after him from the bottom
of the incline.
A ghastly place he found the level.
The timbers were hung with great fes>
toons of peculiar fungus, resembling the
moss of the live oak, but white as snow.
Upon these festoous rested globules of
moisture which were transparent as dis
titled water, and which sparkled in The
bright light like myriads OF diamonds
All these growths, however, were not Of
the form described. Some resembled ex-
aggerated mushrooms, had stems yard
long, that twisted about like rams horns
and wore crowns the siza of broad hat
rim. They mingled with the mossy form