1448 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



Gave probably had heard of the story of the 

 marriage in Mammoth Cave. Like Mam- 

 moth Cave, Wind Cave has a "Bottomless 

 Pit." The one in Mammoth Cave is only 70 

 feet in depth, while the one in Wind Cave is 

 90 feet deep; so you see the pit in the latter 

 cave is 20 feet nearer being "bottomless" 

 than the pit in Mammoth Cave. 



Lincoln's Fireplace was the next. The 

 kindling is all placed I'eady to light— even 

 the pine knot to light him in his studies — all 

 rocky petrifactions. It is well the guide is 

 along to give jovi the name of things or else 

 you woukl not guess them yourself or see 

 the point. The Prairie Dog and Mound is 

 one of these. When he says, "There is the 

 dog and there is the mound, "you see it very 

 plainly. 



In the Chamber of Petrified Clouds the 

 burning magnesium ribbon makes the clouds 

 very plain on the ceiling overhead; and it 

 takes no great stretch of the imagination to 

 believe you are looking at fleecy clouds in 

 reality. A little further on. the ceiling is 

 spattered over with snowballs thrown up 

 against it by the boys. There they are, sure 

 enough, when the guide tells you what it is. 

 There are so many postoffice boxes all 

 through the cave where people have left 

 their cards containing their names and ad- 

 dress that I do not know but I got them mix- 

 ed up a little. It would take a long time to 

 lead them all over, especially where you 

 have to brush off the dust that has been ac- 

 i-umulatiug for years past, and you might 

 not find the name of anybody you knew 

 there, even then. 



The Liberty Bell, with the crack in the 

 side, is found in Independence Hall Cham- 

 ber. 



The G. A. R. Hall contains a dome that is 

 said to be 110 feet above the fioor. This hall 

 was dedicated at a soldiers' reunion in 1899, 

 when there were 9(5 old soldiers present. 

 Their names are to be seen there, with their 

 respective regiments, etc. 



The Cliff-climber's Deliglit is (50 feet high. 

 Think of a I'oom under ground lieing large 

 enough to give place to a cliff of those di- 

 mensions! 



P^INow, I am a little mixed up about the Gar- 

 den of Eden, the Mermaid's Resort, and the 

 Pearly Gates. I can not tell from memory 

 just which one; but in one of them we are 

 told to bow our heads so that we do not 

 brush off any thing overhead. Then we are 

 bidden to sit down and look overhead while 

 the guide burns a magnesium ribbon. Well, 

 the ceiling overhead was studded with a 

 sparkling sort of frostwork like little pine- 

 trees with their tops growing downward. 

 Each little tree was of shiny glistering white- 

 ness. ]t had branches and foliage. I should 

 think some of the plants extended out 6 inches 

 from the ceiling and the sides of the walls. 

 They were so frail, however, that even your 

 breath, let alone touching them with your 

 hands or clothing, woukl probably throw 

 them down. I declared they were growing 

 plants; but the guide assured me that care- 

 ful measurements seem to indicate there has 



been no growth since the cavern was discov- 

 ered. The government absolutely forbids 

 carrying away any of these curiosities, even 

 so much as a grain of sand; and the two 

 guides, one in front and one behind, keep 

 pretty careful watch to see that there is no 

 violation of this I'ule. If there w.ere any 

 water in the cave, or any dampness, I could 

 understand how this crystallization might be 

 growing; but, if I am correct, there has 

 never been found any trace of water, even 

 in the lowest chamber. 



After the Garden of Eden we take the 

 Corkscrew Path and come to the Glacier. A 

 little further on we come to the Sportsman's 

 Delight, where a goose hangs suspended 

 from the ceiling. "The goose- hangs high," 

 and has continued to hang high, no man 

 knows how long. Besides the sparkling 

 scintillations from gems that coat the walls 

 and ceilings, innumerable colored geological 

 specimens confront one at every turn; and 

 you will find every conceivable geometrical 

 figure as well as every color. 



There are many stories about people get- 

 ting lost in the cave. It is said that one of 

 the guides once failed to carry enough can- 

 dles; and when his magnesium light had 

 given out, his candles were gone or mislaid, 

 and not even a match was to be had in the 

 crowd. By getting down on his hands and 

 feet he managed, by crawling and feeling 

 his way, to get out by daylight next day. It 

 seems to me that, where so many people 

 have been treading for years, they ought to 

 be able to follow the beaten path; but there 

 are so many cross-roiites. and crooks and 

 turnings, he might be like one lost in the 

 woods, going around in a circle and getting 

 further and further away from the entrance. 

 With extra guides outside, however, to assist 

 in hunting up the lost, there ought not to be 

 very much trouble. At the present time an 

 extra supply of candles is always taken 

 along, I am told. 



Just a word in closing about the wonder- 

 ful blast of wind that is constantly going out 

 of or into the cave. Soiue years ago the 

 United States government sent out a commis- 

 sion to explore breathing caves and breath- 

 ing wells. Somewhere in the Eastern States 

 there is a well that breathes or blows out 

 quite a blast of air at certain periods, and at 

 other times a strong current of wind goes 

 down into the well. Another strange thing 

 about this particular well is that it contains 

 icicles, even in the summer time — at least re- 

 port says so. Well, this government com- 

 mittee found the story trvie or partly so. 

 During severe winter weather, when the 

 thermometer was down a good deal below 

 zero, a current of zero air would go down in- 

 to that well for several days, freezing the 

 water in the well and in the caverns that 

 opened iip from the bottom of the well. In 

 this way the quantity of ice was so great in 

 and around the well that a good many times 

 it would not thaw out befoi'e summer, result- 

 ing in not only a freezing atmosphere com- 

 ing from the well in summer, but bona-fide 

 icicles on the wall of the well. It seems to 



