s it was--still unskinned--it
must soon become unfit for food, though not so soon as in the open air;
for meat will keep much longer in a cave,--that is, if it be a very deep
one, than it will when exposed to the full light of the sun.

This is easily explained. The principle of decomposition exists in the
atmosphere itself, as is well-known to every one who deals in the
hermetically-sealed airtight canisters of preserved meats; and if you
can but remove the atmosphere entirely from a piece of fish, flesh, or
vegetable, it is supposed that it will keep for ever!

In the interior of a cavern, of course there is still an atmosphere, but
it is rarer and of a less changeable sort, and, most probably, less
active in its powers to cause decay. Hence it is that within the cave
decomposition is slower than without; and, indeed, there are some
caverns where, instead of being decomposed, the bodies of men and
animals have been found still retaining their proper forms, only
shrivelled into smaller size, and dried up like mummies.

Though there was water here and there in the cavern, in all other places
it was exceedingly dry. They could tell that the air was so, because
the rocks felt dry, and in some places there was dust that was perfectly
ready to puff up at the touch. They had noticed this while in pursuit
of the bear. Both bear and dog had more than once been found enveloped
in a cloud of dust as the hunters came near them with the torches.
Indeed, they could tell that the atmosphere of the cavern was dry by
simply breathing it in,--it felt dry to the throat.

Under the keen apprehension which they had lest the meat should spoil
before they could find the entrance of the cave, their wits were set to
work to find some means of preserving it. Salt they had none, and
therefore pickling was out of the question. Had they been able to
procure the material to make a fire, they could have managed without
salt by smoking the meat; but fire-wood was just then as difficult to be
got at as salt. Even without either, had they only been in the open
air, with the warm sun shining down upon them, they could have cured
that bear-meat so that it would have kept good for months.

Alas! the sun's rays were as inaccessible as either the salt or the
fuel.

Preserving the meat by any one of the three different modes of salting,
smoking, or jerking, was alike out of their power.

Having already noticed the extreme dryness of the atmos