overed the narrow floor and made a dazzling, but
distressingly painful rug to crawl over. This is the West Passage and
leads to the Grand Crevice, of which only a small portion has been
surveyed; midway of the passage are the Epsom Rooms, two in number, and
well supplied with epsomite or native Epsom salts; this is sometimes
called the Windy Passage, on account of a rushing current of air met
suddenly at the first bend and, no doubt, due to the meeting here of
fresh air coming in from the outside with that chemically changed in the
Epsom Rooms.

The cave contains a great many dangerous places, as we correctly
surmised on the morning of our introduction; when Mr. Powell's blessing
on the breakfast was lost in so fervent a prayer for the safe and
successful accomplishment of our undertaking, it seemed inconsiderate
not to present the reassuring appearance of inexhaustible endurance.

In the Corridor can be seen one of the three old Spanish ladders found
in the cave when it was rediscovered; but when and for what purpose the
Spaniards used the cave there seems to be no means of finding out. It
should be remembered that this part of the United States was occupied
first by the Spaniards and then by the French, and is a portion of the
Louisiana Purchase, a tract of 897,931 square miles, or 70,000 square
miles more than the original thirteen states. The price asked and paid
was $12,000,000 and the assumption of claims which citizens of this
country had against the French Government for about $3,750,000 more. The
French offered to make the sale on account of being thoroughly
discouraged with constant troubles arising with the Indians, whom they
had decided it would be impossible to persuade or compel to recognize
any laws other than those established by each tribe for itself, or
accepted by friendly treaty with the council and disregarded by
individuals on both sides:--and the United States accepted the offer,
not for any expected value in the land, but for the unrestricted
navigation of the Mississippi River. Therefore Missouri was never under
British rule and never changed hands by force of arms.

But to return to the Spanish ladder, it is a tall pine tree notched on
the sides for steps, and the stump of a branch left or a peg inserted at
considerable intervals, for hand supports to assist in raising the
weight of the body.

Returning to the Auditorium, we entered a passage behind the Great White
Throne and started on wha