IN MAMMOTH CAVE 245 



months they lived here, poor creatures, a half dozen 

 of them, without ever going forth into the world of 

 light. But the long entombment did not arrest the 

 disease; the mountain did not draw the virus out, 

 but seemed to draw the strength and vitality out, 

 so that when the victims did go forth into the light 

 and air, bleached as white as chalk, they succumbed 

 at once, and nearly all died before they could reach 

 the hotel, a few hundred yards away. 



Probably the prettiest thing they have to show 

 you in Mammoth Cave is the Star Chamber. This 

 seems to have made an impression upon Emerson 

 when he visited the cave, for he mentions it in one 

 of his essays, " Illusions." The guide takes your 

 lantern from you and leaves you seated upon a bench 

 by the wayside, in the profound cosmic darkness. 

 He retreats along a side alley that seems to go down 

 to a lower level, and at a certain point shades his 

 lamp with his hat, so that the light falls upon the 

 ceiling over your head. You look up, and the first 

 thought is that there is an opening just there that 

 permits you to look forth upon the midnight skies. 

 You see the darker horizon line where the sky ends 

 and the mountains begin. The sky is blue-black 

 and is thickly studded with stars, rather small stars, 

 but apparently genuine. At one point a long, lumi- 

 nous streak simulates exactly the form and effect of 

 a comet. As you gaze, the guide slowly moves his 

 hat, and a black cloud gradually creeps over the sky, 

 and all is blackness again. Then you hear footsteps 

 retreating and dying away in the distance. Pres- 



