658 THE UNIVERSE. 



As happens in many of the cavernous openings in the 

 globe, there are in the Mammoth Cave certain abysses 

 which seem bottomless. The guides throw down ignited 

 substances, which are seen to descend for an extraordina- 

 rily long time, whirling round and round, and at last, to 

 the great surprise of travellers, become extinguished on 

 their obscure journey before they reach the bottom. 



Other cavities, of only very small extent, attract the at- 

 tention of naturalists much more than those of which we 

 have spoken. These are the bone-caves, in which we find 

 heaps of bones of carnivora, principally bears and hyenas, 

 which lived at an epoch very near our own, and the num- 



icans. They go there in crowds, and there is not always accommodation to be 

 found in the great hotel intended to receive the tourists, although it is arranged 

 for 300 guests. The exploration requires five or six days, and an army of guides 

 is always kept ready for the service of travellers. 



Each, site in this celebrated cave bears a picturesque name. There is the Starry 

 Cavern, dazzling with stalactites ; the Chamber of the Spirits, formerly encum- 

 bered with Indian mummies, which by an act of profanation has become a species 

 of refreshment-room, where the wives of the guides supply liquors and newspa- 

 pers to those travellers who are already fatigued with the subterranean journey, 

 and glad to make a short halt. There is also a kind of hospital here, where some 

 medical men keep patients afflicted with chest affections, thinking the sulphureous 

 atmosphere of these caverns would be favorable to them. In the centre of this 

 hall an almost entire skeleton of a mastodon has been set up. It is also at this 

 part of the Mammoth Cave that the wives of the guides show and sell to those 

 who care for such things the extraordinary little blind fish, the Cyprinodons, 

 which are caught in the water-courses of these immense caverns. 



Further on is seen the Devil's Arm-Chair, which, like a gigantic crystallization, 

 rears itself, all gleaming, on the brink of a dark, bottomless abyss. Besides the 

 Styx and the Dead Sea, these caverns, in which underground windings 20 to 25 

 miles in length are known, possess other bodies of water. Up to the present time 

 226 avenues have been made out, besides 57 domes, 11 lakes, 7 rivers, 8 cata- 

 racts, and 32 abysses, some of which are of an immense depth. 



