y to be
compared.

Great tales the miners told of the wonder and the beauty of these
caverns, the walls of which were supported by arching alabaster columns
and wonderful domes, of indescribable beauty of form and colouring. In
1799, the year that Washington died, a pioneer discovered the entrance
to a cave, the size and beauty of which surpassed anything he had seen
before. After exploring it for a short distance he returned home and
took his whole family with him to enjoy the first view of the wonderful
cavern he had discovered. They carried pine knots and a lighted torch,
by which they made their way for some distance, but the torch was
accidentally extinguished and they groped their way in darkness and
missed the entrance. Without anything to guide them, they wandered in
darkness for three days, and were almost dead when at last they stumbled
upon the exit. This is the doorway of the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, one
of the wonders of the world.

This was a terrible experience. The next persons who attempted to
explore the new cave were better provisioned against the chance of
spending some time underground. The pioneers found rich deposits of
nitre in the "Great Cave," as they called it. Scientists visited it and
explored many of its chambers. The reputation of this cavern has been
spread by thousands of visitors who have come from all over the world to
see it. The cave has not yet been completely explored. The regular
tours, on which the guides conduct visitors, cover but a small part of
the one hundred and fifty miles measured by the two hundred or more
avenues. The passages wind in and out, crossing each other, sometimes at
different levels, and forming a network of avenues in which the
unaccustomed traveller would surely be lost. The old guides know every
inch of their regular course, and their quaint and edifying talk adds
greatly to the pleasure of the visitors.

From the hotel, parties are organized for ten o'clock in the morning and
seven o'clock in the evening. Each visitor is provided with a lard-oil
lamp. The guide carries a flask of oil and plenty of matches. No special
garb is necessary, though people usually dress for comfort, and wear
easy shoes. The temperature of the cave is uniform winter and summer,
varying between fifty-three and fifty-four degrees Fahrenheit.

The cave entrance is an arch of seventy-foot span in the hillside. A
winding flight of seventy stone steps leads the party around a
wat