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. 



