The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1885-12-09
IN A SALT NINE.
A Glittering City Underground With Man.
Streets--Pillnrs of Crystal.


Streets--Pillnrs of Crystal.
Going down into a salt mine is taking a
glimpse at wonderful things, according to
correspondent, who writes: Light few
candles, was the order passed as we were
leaving Winford and am under the i'm
preston that the hole down below is like
any other hole, and that the few candles
will Just give us light enough for the space
of some three or four yards. But we shall
see. We step into our iron bucket. The
door thereof is closed upon US. The sig
nal is given. There is q hesitation, tremb-
ling motion, and we dive swiftly into
Plutonian night, straight, sheer through q
funnel $50 feet deep, and 8 feet 6 inches
across the rim of our bucket now and again
grinding, scraping, humping, screeching
against the narrow walls. After the first
few seconds have passed one can not tell,
from ones sensations merely, whether one
is going up or down, or is suspended at rest.
There is only the trembling of the invisible
steel ropes and the scraping sound on the
walls. In minute more we touch the floor
of the under world with the lightness of
feather. In the name of all the fairies and
COLLINS and gnomes and sprites of the
EARTH what have we there? OH Master
Robert, "a few candles" The city of Dis
iiluminated-this is what meets my aston
shed gaze. Open spaces, endless streets
turning and winding off in oil directions,
and outlined in spots of light, and in the
farthest distance an ornamental group of
lights, as if on wall OF on some vast sup
porting pillar. It is as il one looks from
some point of vantage upon the lights of a
town in dark night, without moon or
stars not a town with empty space over it,
but a town under q horizontal ceiling thirty
three feet above the pavement. On this
level pavement the massed bands of the
British army may play Strauss music and
the whole OF the London West End spin
round on " light fantastic toe." The first
feeling of surprise over examine my sur
roundings in leisurely detail. At some dis
lance in front of US looms dark mass with
horizontal line of lights half way up it,
The three of us-Mr. verdin, the guide and
myself-approach it, each carrying light
cd candle across tho floor, which appears
TO be as level as the floor of drawing room,
and which is covered with a thin carpet OF
salt, fine as powder and dry as finder
Wherever the light falls upon il the dark
object glitters as if it were encrusted with
rubies and diamonds. 1t turns out to be
huge square pillar, extending from floor to
ceiling. Each of its four sides measure ~
yards, it is SO feet high and it is nothing
but mass of crystals. At every twenty
Ave yards, north, south, east, west, stands
one of these gigantic columns all of them,
like this one, masses Of many tinted salt
crystals, and with the diamond flash darling
over their sides. The plan of this wonder
full colonnade is now obvious The miners
have been cutting their way all these many
generations through the solid rocksalt, hori-
zontally, clearing smooth floor below their
feet, leaving smooth ceiling over their
heads, and, at the already named distance,
those enormous pilasters, whose function it
is to prevent the roof-that is, the $50 feet
of the earth's crust-from falling in. The
ceiling is too high to respond very literally
to the flicker of our candle lights but in
hundred spots it wrinkles like stars peering
through the clouds of night. They look as
though they had the strength of doom,
those pillars, and were destined to last to
the crack thereof. London Ne,os.