THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 143 
comment. The three or four pounds that were 
in our coat pockets became an intolerable burden 
upon the shoulders and neck. A young gen- 
tleman from Virginia, a Baptist minister, who 
accompanied our party, very accommodatingly 
proposed that we should place our specimens 
with his in his handkerchief, and carry them 
alternately. By this arrangement we succeeded 
between us in bringing out a very fair collection 
of some of the minor curiosities of the Cave. 
It is unnecessary to refer to the incidents of 
our outward passage; they possess but little of 
interest. We made our exit from the Cave, 
footsore and weary, at half-past nine o’clock in 
the evening, having been under ground for a 
period of twelve hours and a half. We climbed 
the rugged hill and reached the hotel, feeling as 
though 1t would have been impossible to have 
walked another step. 
Though being exceedingly fatigued, for the 
reason that we had long been unaccustomed to 
much pedestrian exercise, yet we felt a thousand 
times repaid for our exhaustion in having visited 
a new world, and witnessed with our own eyes 
its multiform phases of wonder. 
Awaiting our return, we found prepared 
bountiful supper; and, happily, all were in a 
condition to do it full justice. 
