THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 201 
For more than a quarter of a mile this 
avenue has a ceiling perfectly flat, with every 
appearance of having received a coat of ‘plaster. 
It is smoked over in all parts with the names of 
vulgar visitors, from which circumstance one 
locality is called the Register Room. Persons 
formerly carried candles in their trips through 
the Cave, and, by tying them to poles, suc- 
ceeded in not only smoking their names upon 
the ceiling, from eight to sixteen feet overhead, 
but in many instances their portraits,—for there 
were frequently rude attempts at drawing the 
figures of sheep and pigs, as we are told by 
Bayard Taylor, and as every visitor may see 
for himself. The lamps now in use are much 
more convenient for carrying, and have the 
additional advantage of guarding against all 
such desecration. | 
The Register Room, to use the words of Dr. 
Wright, is about three hundred feet long, forty 
wide, and from eight to sixteen in height. The 
ceiling is white, and as smooth as though it had 
been plastered. In this room hundreds of per- 
sons have displayed their bankruptcy in every- 
thing pertaining to good breeding and taste by 
tracing their obscure names on the ceiling with 
the smoke of a candle. 3 
