358 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



place to swear. Finallj' somebody utters an 

 exclamation of surprise, and calls us to look 

 np. Wonder of wonders I There are the stars 

 twinklin-x down upon us from the vault over- 

 head. Yes, and there is a comet, and anon 

 some fleecy clouds appear, illumined by the 

 rising sun.' Oh yes '. this is the Starry Cham- 

 ber, and the light that looks so irresistibly like 

 a gray tint of dawn is caused only by some 

 Bengal lights the guide is burning. As we 

 listen we can hear them hiss, and finally he 

 comes dangling his lanterns, and laughing at 

 the trick he has played upon us. The ceil- 

 ing of this Starry Chamber is as black as black 

 marble : and spotted all over its inky surface 

 are little crystalline spots of crystallized gyp- 

 sum; and as the light strikes them this 

 makes the stars. 



A little further, and a gieat log of wood 

 sticks down from the ceiling. Who put it 

 there ? How did it get there in Mam- 

 moth Cave, any way V and who stuck it 

 through that great rock V The water did it 

 ages ago, without question, and surely there 

 must have been communication with the 

 upper world somewhere not very far oft'. 



Pretty soon Ave have not only cliffs, but 

 cliffs covered with drifted snow. Do you 

 want to know what the drifted snow is ? 

 AVhy, it is epsom salts. Here we find foot- 

 prints made by the barefooted boys. May 

 be the footprints were made yesterday, but 

 more likely one-fourth or one-half a century 

 ago. No dust falls here, and every thing 

 remains just where it was put. mitil some 

 human agency dislodges it. 



Wright's Rotunda now opens before us. 

 It is -100 feet across in its shortest diameter. 

 The ceiling is from 10 to 4o feet in height. 

 and perfectly level, the difference in the 

 height being produced entirely by the irreg- 

 ularity of the floor. The lamps fail to illu- 

 mine these great chambers, and nothing but 

 the Bengal lights can dispel the darkness. 



Now we come to the Bride's Chamber. 

 Once, a long time ago, a fair maiden wanted 

 to get married. Her good mother objected, 

 however, and finally exacted from her a 

 promise that she would not marry any man 

 on the face of the earth, without her 'moth- 

 er's consent and approval. Then the two 

 fond ones went down into Mammoth Cave 

 and were married there, thus fulfilling the 

 letter if not the spirit of her promise, that 

 she would not be married to anybody on the 

 ;■</(•( of the earth. Many couples have been 

 married there since. 



Here we are. at the Wooden-Bowl Boom. 

 Wooden bowls are all over the ceiling, turn- 

 ed upside down, only they are made of stone 

 instead of wood. In fact, the whole room 

 seems to be almost the shape of a great 

 wooden bowl. It is also said, that years 

 ago. a veritable wooden bowl was found 

 here in this room. The peculiar forma- 

 tion of the rock, and the character of the 

 water which flowed through it, I ])resume. 

 had someliiing to do witli the formation of 

 these (lueer-shaped cavities. 



•• Danger on tiie rigiit! " signals .Matt, and 

 we crowd oft' against tiie left wall, peering 

 anxiously into the thick darkness. Pretty 

 soon Matt lights a roll of oiled paper and 

 tumbles it overboard, and then we can see 



j what the danger is. Down, down it goes, 

 whirling spirally, lighting up the darkness 

 I for a distance of Oo feet. The chasm is 

 1 about 2-5 feet across, and over it a dome .>5 

 I feet high. Now, then, the Labyrinth, a sort 

 of rude stairway fashioned by nature, lets us 

 go down hill at "a pretty steep rate : then we 

 i go up hill, then we go down hill, and so we 

 go twisting and turning, up and down, un- 

 til we harflly know where Ave are or Avho we 

 are. Finally a halt is called, and Ave are per- 

 mitted to look through a AvindoAV. Listen ! 

 j Sure enough, that is water dripping; yes, 

 and Ave begin to feel thirsty again as Ave hear 

 the tinkle of a little Avaterfall. Doaa-u go the 

 slieets of oiled paper again, blazing as they 

 fall, and Ave look down 117 feet, then AA-e look 

 i up 100 feet, and this is what is called Gorin's 

 Dome. It used to be called oOO feet ; but 

 accurate measurements show it as above. 

 We go back a piece, and then Ave come to 

 the Bottomless Pit. A bridge goes across 

 [ it. Avith an iron railing. Tlie bridge looks 

 i as if many feet had trodden it. Before this 

 bridge Avas built, visitors Avere obliged to 

 stop here. This Bottomless Pit also extends 

 I upAvard as Avell as doAvnward. Pensico 

 AAcnue is a mile long. By this time we 

 had got so accustomed to Avonderful things 

 that I began to take things as a matter of 

 course ; and had Matt the guide gravely in- 

 formed us that the next passage Avould take 

 us right through the earth, and out into 

 China, in about fifteen minutes, I do not 

 know that Ave should have been very greatly 

 ; surprised. 



As Ave passed a great awkward-looking 

 rock, something like one saucer lying iuA^rt- 

 ed over another. Matt hit it Avith his cane, 

 and said. " Sea-turtle." After he mentioned 

 it. we agreed that it did look like a sea-tur- 

 tle : but it Avas a Avhopper, I tell you. Scyl- 

 la and Charybdis, two more great pits. 



While I Avas gazing at the Avonderful 

 domes that we found al)0ve these deep pits, 

 ! the thought struck me tiiat possibly the sink- 

 holes that I saw the Avater running into 

 i along the railroad track had some coimec- 

 \ tion Avith these domes. I asked :Matt about 

 ; it, and he said he presumed it Avas the case. 

 The Avater floAvs down in great quantities 

 from the hills, or perhaps mountains, above. 

 It runs into these valleys that I ha\-e told 

 you about, sinks into the ground, and keeps 

 on sinking and dissolving the formation un- 

 til these deep Avells or pits with their great 

 domes above them are formed. At the foot 

 of one of these great pits the floor widens 

 out so as to cover about an acre in extent, 

 and in one part of this great room is a body 

 of Avater. 



AtkI noAV, friends, I have reached the 

 close of my allotted space for this issue, and 

 yet my story is not all told. A great truth 

 iin|)resses itself upon my mind as I go over 

 tliese details. As Ave busy ourselves Avith 

 our every-day cares about our separate little 

 homes, liow huicli do we realize of the mag- 

 nitude and greatness of this vast universe 

 about usV We know comparatively little of 

 tills earth on Avhich Ave live ; and even aft- 

 er we have sailed or traveled over its surface, 

 there are regions beneath its surface, to be 

 explored and to be studied, as I have been 



