THE CAVE CULTURE OF MUSHROOMS. 59 



easiest and indeed the only way by which human beings 

 can get into the mine. I had an idea that one might 

 enter sideways and in a more agreeable manner, but it 

 was not so. Down the shaky pole my guide creeps, I 

 follow, and soon reach the bottom, from which little 

 passages radiate. A few little lamps fixed on pointed 

 sticks are placed below, and, arming ourselves with one 

 each, we slowly commence exploring dark, still, tortuous 

 passages. I have heard that the first individual who 

 commenced mushroom-growing in these catacomb-like 

 burrowings was one who, at a particularly glorious epoch 

 of the history of France, when a great many more brave 

 gargons went to fight than returned from the victory, 

 preferred, strange to say, to stay at home and hide him- 

 self rather than form a unit in " battle's magnificently 

 stern array/' Industrious and discreet youth ! You 

 deserve being held up as an example as much as the 

 busy bee that improves each " shining hour." 



The passages are narrow, and occasionally we have to 

 stoop. On each hand there are little narrow beds of half- 

 decomposed stable manure running along the wall. 

 These have been made quite recently, and have not yet 

 been spawned. Presently we arrive at others in which 

 the spawn has been placed, and is " taking'*' freely. The 

 spawn in these caves is introduced into the little beds 

 in flakes taken from an old bed, or, still better, 

 from a heap of stable manure in which it occurs naturally. 



