IO4 Northwich. 



tinuity of wall. When the " drifts" are lighted up, as on 

 gala days, by the 2500 or 3000 candles that are re- 

 quisite for so vast an expanse, though the glimmering is 

 in some degree like that of lamps seen through a fog, 

 the spectacle is truly beautiful and picturesque, and a 

 peculiar arrangement being given to the candles, the per- 

 spective effect of the long vistas of dots of light is made 

 perfect. As soon as the eye becomes accustomed to 

 the comparative darkness, the scene down in this great 

 vault becomes very effective and pleasing : the mine 

 seems a city, deserted by the inhabitants in the dead of 

 night, while its lamps were all burning, yet there are so 

 many signs of life that the impression is never otherwise 

 than cheerful When the company is considerable in 

 number, and gets distributed into parties, and every in- 

 dividual is provided with a spare candle, fitted to the 

 end of a stick or a lump of crystal, and promenading be- 

 gins, the forms and figures being lost in the distance, it 

 seems as if all the ignes fatui that have ever danced 

 above the swamps of earth's surface were here living re- 

 tired, and either enjoying a sort of underground heaven, 

 or doing penance for leading travellers astray. 



The salt must not be supposed to be of the kind, or 

 rather in the form, that we see it subsequently upon the 

 dinner-table, being crystalline, or ice-like. The crystal 

 is mostly in the form of vertical prisms, and varies con- 

 siderably in purity, some being perfectly translucent, 

 while other portions are discoloured, and resemble brown 



