2m 



GLEANINGS IN J3EE ClJLtui^E. 



At^ii. 



'■ But, what do they have to eat?'" 



"' They do not eat any thing."' 



Now. here is a point for friend Chirke in 

 liis hilx'rnating theory. The droppings 

 from the bats had accumulated in such 

 (luantities tliat tliey formed a sort of guano, 

 which had been ct)riecled for ferliliziiig pui- 

 poscs. Some of the l)oys proi)osed catching 

 some of them to take'home ; but the guide 

 told them there would be i»lenty of time 

 when we came back, and they need not fear 

 but there would be plenty of bats, for, in 

 fact, there were thousands upon thousands. ! 

 They came in just far enough to be entirely 

 l)C\()nd tlie iniluence of cold air— perphaps 

 .1(10 or (>(i() IVet from the moHth. The tem- 

 l)erature of the cave now became uniform, 

 and stood at just r).5, and it seldom varies 

 one degree from this, winter or summer. 

 Here is a fact for lis in wintering bees. Old 

 Mother Earth is .5,5,- and I presume the wa- 

 ter from our deep wells is 5-5,- or ought to be. 

 Isn't that where we want itV and if so, can 

 we not get it without any very great trouble? 



A little further on we came to the vats 

 and machinery used by the saltpeter makers 

 over7()>ears ago; and yet every thing was 

 as jierfect as it was the day it was put up. 

 Woodwork never decays or wears out here. 

 We somewhat expected to tind dampness ; 

 but the lloor is covered with dry dust in 

 many places, and in this dry dust you Avill 

 see footinints made by the barefooted boys 

 of a century ago, it may be. The guide told 

 us to hang up our overcoats on the tim- 

 bers. Some thought they would rather car- 

 ry them ; but he told us we should not need 

 them, and that we had better follow his in- 

 structions. I had been troubled with a cold 

 and sore throat, so that I thought I might 

 be chilly ; but I very soon discovered that 

 there was no danger of taking cold in ]\Iam- 

 moth (Vive. We now began to discover the 

 ({ueer figures on the ceihngs and walls, 

 formed by the precipitation of plaster of 

 I'aris. or sulphate of lime, formed by the 

 water years ago. when these caverns were 

 water-courses. These salts, as they were 

 piecipitated from the water, crystallized in ' 

 many curious shapes, sometimes' resembling 

 frostwork on tlie window-pane, or alum 

 crystals on the alum baskets that we used to 

 luake when children. A great part of Mam- 

 uioth ("ave was ctriginally strewn with pieces 

 of broken rock. These have been piled out i 

 of the way, so as to make it convenient for \ 

 people to pass. Matt rapped with his cane i 

 on a log along our pathway, and explained 

 l)i-ie(iy, •• I'ump - logs of I'sli'."" Our fore- 

 fathers carried water into the cave liy these 

 pnini)-l<)gs from the little waterfall t)ver the 

 mouth, that I have mentioned. After pass- 

 ing it througli the saltpeter diit, just as we 

 pass tiie water through a ])ari-el of ashes in 

 soaj)- making, they cariied the saltpeter in 1 

 solution back to the mouth in another set of ' 

 pumi)-logs, making, altogethci-. more tiian 

 half a mile of tliese wooden pipes. When 

 the water came back it was boiled down in 

 kettles as we make sugar. 



After our overcoats were off, and we were 

 ready to start on our tramp, the guide gave 

 us some directions in regard to getting lost, i 

 Visitors are recpiested to keep their eye on 1 



the guide, and note carefully his instruc- 

 tions. If one should, however, become so 

 intent on examining .some of the curiosities, 

 and forget and let the crowd get out of sight, 

 all he has to do is to keep right where he 

 got lost until his absence is discovered and 

 they come back after him. If he will do 

 tliis. he will be certain to be rescued inside 

 of ten hours, because the whole route the 

 guide traversed will be gone over in that 

 time, under any circumstances. If. however, 

 he tliinks he can manage it himself, and 

 goes to wandering about in the avenues and 

 darkness, it may be impossible to hnd him 

 for several days. During the route tiie 

 guide would call out, " Danger on the right 1 "" 

 and again, •• Danger on the left!'" \Vhen- 

 ever these calls came I was always curious 

 (like old mother Eve) to know what it was 

 that was dangerous, and what made it dan- 

 gerous. Sometimes, by peering off toward 

 the danger I could discover a steep preci- 

 pice, with rough and ragged rocks away 

 down at the bottom. Sometimes these 

 chasms were fenced off with a railing. 

 Where there was an abundance of room, 

 safety was secured by simply walking far 

 enough away from the brink." The caution 

 was needed, however ; for a careless person, 

 amid our talking and laughing and jesting, 

 might stumble, without thinking, into these 

 dangers : for these little lamps that we car- 

 ried seemed to have little effect in dispelling 

 that darkness for only a few yards ahead. 



Did it ever strike you, dear reader, that 

 we all, in living these lives of ouis, need a 

 guide to warn us beforehand of danger on 

 the right and danger on the left? Do you 

 remend)er what I have told you of that'lit- 

 tle voice within me that calls out. " Lord, 

 help,"' sometimes before I am scarcely aware 

 that dangerous ground is near ? I have 

 thought, too of the way in which we some- 

 times try to get ourselves out of trouble 

 without any help from the Guide. A young 

 Christian makes a mistake innocently. He 

 feels ashamed to confess his folly, and. 

 without waiting for the Guide to tell him 

 vvliat to do. he ventures to try a falsehood as 

 a refuge. He gets in trouble and darkness. 

 Instead of standing still and falling on his 

 knees, asking mercy and guidance, he tries 

 more falsehoods, ahit soon finds that he is 

 blundei'ing hoi)elessly in a daikness that is 

 even worse than the "darkness of Mammoth 

 Cave, and more dangerous and more sure to 

 lead to ruin than any foolish blundering in 

 that cave' In ^laminoth Cave they liave 

 what tliey call the IJottomless i'it ; and one 

 who blunders alone, without the assistance 

 of an exiterienced guide, might ))ossibly fall 

 into it : l)ut he who disdains and lejects the 

 help of the Savior shall suiely reacli, in the 

 end. that holldinlt'ss iiil that" many of us 

 have, even yet in lluse lives, had taint gliini)S- 

 es of. Shall we not, then. dear friends, keep 

 closely to Him who has said.— 



I ;nii tlic litilit of the world; he tliat lollowotli mo 

 slmll not walk in diirknoss, l)iit shall liavo the lifiht 

 ol' lil'c/ 



And now. fiiends, here I am at liie end of 

 the fourth page of my story, and yet it is 

 scarcely begun; and therefore I shall have 

 to continue it in our issue for May 1-5. 



