prepared
paint vermilion. A thousand workmen are employed in the Spanish mines,
above or under ground. It freezes at an exceedingly low temperature,
and was found solid during midwinter by the traveller Pallas. Of the
other metals, some used as medicines, or pigments, or to form alloys, we
have not time now to speak.

CHAPTER SIX.

SALT AND QUICKSILVER MINES.

The object of the travellers was not only to inspect coal mines, but to
view the wonders of the subterranean world. It is impossible to do more
than give a very brief account of the places they visited. They had
found their way to the Carpathian Mountains, in order to visit the salt
mines of Wieliczka, a small town to the south of Cracow. The valley in
which the mine is situated is fruitful and picturesque. Descending by a
staircase of thirty feet or so, through a bed of clay, they arrived at
the commencement of the level galleries, which branch off in all
directions. Overhead was a ceiling of solid salt, under foot a floor of
salt, and on either side grey walls of salt, sparkling here and there
with minute crystals. The guide led them on through a bewildering maze
of galleries. Now they entered a grand hall, now descended by
staircases to another series of vaulted chambers. On every side was
solid salt, except where stout piers of hewn timber had been built up to
support the roof, or wooden bridges had been thrown over some vast
chasm. As they descended, the air became dry and agreeable, and the
saline walls more pure and brilliant. One hall, 108 feet in length,
resembled a Grecian theatre, the places where the blocks had been taken
out in regular layers representing seats for the spectators. Here and
there were gangs of workmen, some labouring at the solid floor, others
trundling wheel-barrows full of cubes of salt.

Soon after entering, they reached the chapel of Saint Anthony, excavated
in the times of the Byzantines, supported by columns, with altar,
crucifix, and life-size statues of saints. They appeared, from being
coated with smoke, to be of black marble, but Mark, putting his tongue
to the nose of one of the saints, discovered it to be of salt. Many of
the saints, however, were disappearing before the damp, which enters in
that higher region from the upper world. The heads of some, and the
limbs of others had already fallen.

The guide had come provided with some Bengal lights, one of which he
kindled on the altar, bringing in