Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1903-08-28
The mystery of the nash-lamp, and

when he was quite ready gave them
the signal to put out their lamps. They
did so. The blackness could almost
have been cut with knife. and the
Stiffness was SO intense that We coulI
hear each others regular breathing.
/ Terrible thoughts seurried through
my brain. What must it be, l thought
to be lost In such place without
! llght, without food, or 10 be IN there
with an enemy who was familiar with
! is ramiflcations? 1t was a place to
| lose ones self IN. to go mad III, TO be
murdered in without the world being
! j0t the wiser And what was that!
Something crawling over my face, here
and there and everywhere; something
creeping up my arms; something gid
i ing round my neck Would that lamp
never flash? 1t seemed an age but
/ was in reality not second. blue,
binding glare went up, iliuninlng the
space around with such light as 1t
/ had never seen before, and showing
up plainly the trio of "champignon-
nistes" crouched down as they worked,
/ and soaring a million flies and spiders
and goodness alone knows what other
/ insects and yermin. The light died
down and went out, and again the
lamps sprang into life and shed their
/ flckerlng welcome CLEANS around.
After securing some other pictures
and a very fine accumulation OF small
/ flies ON our lamps-indeed, the oil-wels
were black with them-we gladly
sought the upper world again. had
no ambition to explore the caves In
their entirety, but only to get my
cramped spine once more into Its nor
maj position TO sit down and rest in
neighboring inn and gather mushroom
knowledge from the lips Of the grower
himself. Fifty years before, he told
me, the caves had been open to the
broad light of day. They We're the
scene of great activity, resounding con
| tinually with the explosions Of gun
powder, for there men were quarrying
the stone that helped to build Paris.
Later on they had been abandoned and
covered in, to be finally taken over by
! the cultivators of mushrooms. This Is
the history of most of the caves which
are now used for this purpose not only
In the neighborhood of the capital, but
throughout France
But all are not of the kind | have
just described, otherwise | should not
have gone myself and prevailed upon
the photographer to accompany me to
the famous caves Of Issyles- Molineaux
owned by champignonnlste SauYageot
| found them, as | had been told |
should, to be In decided contrast to
those previously visited; as large as the
| other We're small $50 feet in height at
least. And there was no ladder to de-
scend one walked straight into the tun-
mel from the daylight, for ii pierced a
hill, a chalk hill whence had been quar-
ried thousands of tons of chalk Of the
quality that makes acquaintance with
the tips of billiard cues. The main tun-
mel, cutting clean into the hill for n dis
lance Of not less than $50 yards
would have easily admitted Il carriage
and pair, carrying another vehicle on
top. AS mushroom caves go 1t was GER
tainly a handsome one, but just as cold
and damp as any other, with switch
back sort of road leading from the en-
trance to the bottom of the caves
Here there was space for six lines Of
mushroom beds to wend their irregular
ways side by side, as will be seen In
our photograph.
There were six of these large CALLER
les, from which numerous others ran
off. twisting and winding about TO the
length of some seven kilometres Cut
In the sides of the passages We're mum
erous little "chapels," some on n level
with the ground, others high mp In the
side of the wall. In all these caves
contained some sixty kilometres of fine
mushroom-b beds; spiders and flies we
found there IN their millions, the only
occupants beyond rats and the cats
that are kept there to catch them
In no case of such dimensions are all
the mushroom beds in the same stage
| of advancement at once While some
| thousands OF metres are IN full bloom,
/
some passages the beds are only Just
being laid down, while in others the
work of clearing out old and useless
beds IS being carried ON. Why this is
SO win be apparent when it is stated
that II would take fifty men employed
in the caves at MoullneauX eight
months to ill them with the $4,000
metres they are capable of aceommo-
/ dating.
Scrupulous cleanliness is an absolute
sine qua non ere a new bed can be
laid down. The cave must be cleared
of the old bed entirely; not a particle
of ii must be left, for with all the
mushrooms aptitude for lightning
| growing. it is something of a dandy
in the vegetable world. There are GER
tain things it does not like: that it pre-
! fers death to, In fact. and amongst them
may be mentioned dead rats, old iron.
and a parasitioal insect with a special