62 THE MAMMOTH CAVE OF KENTUCKY. 



and having placed them together, disappears, and as he does so, 

 contrives to throw the hght in such a way as to give the appearance 

 of approaching night 3 at the same time he imitates to perfection 

 the sounds characteristic of the fowl, sheep, oxen and other domestic 

 animals retiring to rest. The apparent sky is then glittering with 

 imaginary stars, and so real does it seem, that if a person were blind- 

 folded and taken to this part of the cave without knowing where he 

 was, and the bandage removed from his eyes, he would most 

 assuredly imagine that he was standing in the open air at midnight. 

 The light is then so manipulated as to bring black clouds gradually 

 over the sky, and as one writer has observed, it only requires the 

 thunder and lightning to make one believe a real thunder-storm is 

 approaching. Morning then appears, — first the grey dawn, and 

 the rising cries of the animals and birds, and then the full day. 

 The farce is so like reality that one almost believes oneself 

 dreaming. 



Near the Star Chamber is a solitary spot with associations that 

 filled one with sympathy : here in a long wide gallery fourteen 

 houses were erected and fitted up for the reception of consumptive 

 patients, — a medical theory having been started that if such 

 sufferers could live in an uniform temperature their symptoms 

 would abate, and whole or partial restoration to health take place. 

 The experiment was tried, but in vain : after a twelvemonth passed 

 in the gloomy solitude of the cave four died there, the other tea 

 lingering a few months only after they returned to their homes. 

 The air of the cave is remarkably clear and cool, except near the 

 entrance J passing out into the open air is like facing the heat of 

 an oven ; the feeling of depression sometimes causes faintness. In 

 the cave the atmosphere is as light and fresh as the mountain air 

 of Switzerland. When I entered the cave I had a bad cold and 

 intermittent fever, but on the second day of my explorations was 

 quite free from both. 



Thus ends the '' Short Route." 



