294 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



stuff all my baggage with them. ... I now remember that it is the custom 

 to wear short dresses at the Mammoth Cave. So you will have to provide 

 yourself with some sort of bloomeresque costume. You must not give up the 

 journey. It is not likely that I shall ever be called this way again. I hope 

 to give a good deal of energy to getting through rapidly, and as I travel 

 towards home for the first two weeks, be sure that no grass will grow under 

 my feet. 



Camp near MAYFIELD, June 20, 1878. 



We get along slowly : the roads are crooked and the devil of delay in every 

 corner. I now see to my sorrow that I cannot get back to you on Saturday. 

 We have been quite well; the country we have traversed is healthy and 

 high, a beautiful farming country, about the most uniformly good land 

 in the state. . . . We must be at the Mammoth Cave on the sixth. . I shall 

 in this way get about a week away from Camp. I am utterly disgusted at 

 the failure of my plans for getting home this week. 



Camp, July 28) 1878. 



I find my camp, the northern party, for it is divided into two, in 

 rather poor shape, doing little save getting over the ground. Last night the 

 other, the southern party, came to a Bull Run retreat, having managed to 

 smash up their instruments, after which, ceasing work, they fell back upon 

 my camp in a demoralized condition. . . . The following is my plan. . . . 

 I have nothing to do but to tell over this plan for putting distance behind 

 me. It is the way out of my present wilderness to the happy land of home. 

 Please see that money is sent to me at Abingdon. 



Camp at OLD LANDING, July 31, 1878. 



Proctor turns west this morning, so that I get a chance to send a letter 

 which will not run the gauntlet of the mountain mails, when each five miles 

 the letters are poured upon a bar-room table and each man takes his pick. 

 My camp is again in working order and doing all that the weather and 

 country will allow. ... So far we have found an interesting country with 

 a big-limbed, hospitable people. The camp keeps well ; they are a set of 

 bronzed savages that do me credit as a camp-master. I shall have to hire 

 two yoke of oxen to complete my outfit, then we can creep up the hills, 

 and along the valleys towards our goal. We are camped in a beautiful 

 amphitheatre, with fine cliffs all around and some fine caves, where it is 

 the fashion to hide for a while after having killed a man ; this adds a little 

 romantic touch to the scene. 



