158 THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 
the idea that a storm is approaching. It needs 
but the flash of lightning and the roar of thunder 
to make the illusion complete. 
After producing the storm illusion, the guide 
disappears entirely with the lamps through the 
nether avenue which communicates with the one 
by which we entered several hundred yards in 
the rear. We are thus left in total darkness, 
without even the sight of the midnight sky to 
console us. Of these moments, Bayard Taylor 
remarks: “ Yes, this is darkness—solid, palpable 
darkness. Stretch out your hand and you can 
grasp it; open your mouth and it will choke 
you. Such must have been the primal chaos 
before Space was, or Form was, or ‘ Let there be 
light! had been spoken. In the intense stillness 
I could hear the beating of my heart, and the 
humming sound made by the blood in its circu- 
lation.” 
After waiting a short time, sufficiently long 
to enable us to appreciate the sense of total dark- 
ness, we observed the faintest rays of daylight 
in the eastern horizon; and then, to heighten 
the illusion, we heard the well-imitated crow of 
chanticleer. Day was breaking after that period 
of awful darkness; lighter and lighter came the 
morning as the guide slowly approached,—for it 
