THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 197 



accept assistance, and trudged off to his work 

 alone. The circumstance being common enough, 

 he was speedily forgotten by his brother miners ; 

 and it was not until several hours after, when 

 they had left ofi' their toil for the more agreea- 

 ble duty of eating their dinner, that his absence 

 was remarked, and his heroical resolution to 

 make his way alone to the Salts Room remem- 

 bered. As it was apparent, from the time he 

 had been gone, that some accident must have 

 happened to him, half a dozen men, most of 

 them negroes, stripped half naked, their usual 

 working costume, were sent to hunt him up; a 

 task supposed to be of no great difficulty, unless 

 he had fallen into a pit. In the mean while the 

 poor miner, it seems, had succeeded in reaching 

 the Salts Room, filling his sack, and retracing 

 his steps half way back to the Grand Gallery ; 

 when, finding the distance greater than he 

 thought it ought to be, the conceit entered his 

 unlucky brain that he might, perhaps, be going 

 wrong. No sooner had the suspicion struck 

 him than he fell into a violent terror, dropped 

 his sack, ran backward, then returned, then ran 

 back again, — each time more frightened and be- 

 wildered than before; until, at last, he ended his 

 adventure by tumbling over a stone and extin- 



17* 



