1-38 THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 



the idea that a storm is approaching. Tt needs 

 bat the flash of lightning and the roar of thunder 

 to make the ilUision 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 



