THE GOLD MINE AND CAVE OF ICE.
The shock of the day before had left Mrs. Graham in a very nervous
condition. Having arrived at the Temple, she was given into the hands of
her attendants, who soon had her in the perfumed bath, and with a
treatment much resembling our massage, she was soon brought out of her
nervousness. Still to-day she was far from feeling like herself, and
when Onrai had proposed a trip to the gold mine and quarries, she
declined to go.
Mr. Graham, having already visited these places, decided to remain with
his wife.
Onrai had each day since their arrival, projected some novel excursion
or entertainment for our friends, the preparation for these always being
both elaborate and complete. So much of interest was to be seen in this
strange city and country, our friends never tired of these excursions.
Many things were seen which contrasted favorably with similar
contrivances in their own country. The streets were paved with the
beautiful onyx, and were always scrupulously clean. There were no
sidewalks, the pavements stretching from lawn to lawn. These pavements
were cleaned once a day with a combination of sweeper, watering cart and
dirt gatherer in one, which did its work most effectually. The
contrivance, but for the material used in its construction, the striped
animals pulling it, and the queer costumes of the drivers, would have
caused no comments on the streets of an American city; for it looked
like the invention of some modern genius.
This had been used, however, as had every other contrivance or machine,
since the foundation of the city. In fact, the city or country must have
been founded by a race who had reached a high point in civilization, for
their architecture, their fine arts, their implements of manufacture and
farming, all showed deep thought, careful study, and great knowledge of
the principles involved. And the laws which were made to govern the
people were perfect, and, being carried out, left perfect results.
But our friends had not seen all the wonders of this strange country, or
the works of its people; nor had Onrai given to Enola or the rest of the
strangers, any idea of the immense resources of this land. They had many
things to learn still, and one thing in particular, which would startle
and surprise them. Our friends were happy though, and not one of them
had as yet given a thought to the returning to their homes. This life
was so pleasant, every feature of it so enjoyable, they had little time
or desire to think of aught else. The time would come, however, when a
longing to see their friends left behind, to once more taste the
delights and pleasures of modern civilization, to be where people talked
and acted as themselves, would take such hold on them that they would
wonder how they ever could have found any pleasure in this strange city
and among a people which knew nothing, or cared to know nothing, but
what had passed down to them from the founder of this country, who had
lived thousands of years before.
But as yet this longing had not come to disturb their peaceful thoughts,
and to-day, as they were about to start on another excursion to see more
of the wonders of this strange country, they were never happier. As was
customary on such occasions, our friends were mounted on the white
elephants, accompanied by the king and ten zebramen, who acted as on
escort.
Their first stop was to be at the onyx quarries, five miles distant.
They started early, so as to reach the farthest point before the middle
of the day, when the heat was so intense, it was hard to withstand it.
Their way led through a broad avenue lined on either side by tall palms,
back of which were beautiful palaces, the large entrances being open,
showing their dark, cool interiors. Many of the inhabitants were also on
the street, enjoying the fresh morning breeze. Some were lounging about
the broad terraces, while others were seated on onyx chairs, in the
great gardens surrounding each house.
The sun, just rising above the eastern mountain, the songs of the birds,
the perfume of the flowers wafted to them by the cool morning breeze,
the beautiful palaces with the white-robed inhabitants lounging about
them, the broad, paved avenue with the white elephants and beautiful
zebras, moving stately along it, left but one thought in the minds of
our friends, namely, that they would willingly brave the hardships,
trials and dangers of their past journey, for this one short hour in the
beautiful city of On. The paved avenue reached on as far as the Cave of
Ice, which the party was to visit before their return.
At last the immense quarry of onyx was reached, and our friends stood in
wonder, gazing at its great extent. At least forty acres of onyx had
already been taken from the quarry, and huge blocks of the beautiful
stone lay finished on the broad pavement, while others were being placed
by means of levers, on rollers in readiness to be moved to the new
building in course of construction in the city. Some of these blocks
measured twenty feet in length, being five feet square.
These were moved to the city, and placed in position by means of rollers
and derricks, the huge elephants doing most of the work. About the
quarry were a great many beautiful columns, capitols, pedestals, stones
for arches, balustrades, stairs, and roughly hewn statues, ready to be
moved to the school of fine arts. A great many men were at work, all
taking the greatest interest in their labors. The king explained that
these men discontinued work at eleven o’clock, and were through for the
day. At three o’clock another body of men went to work, and continued
until seven in the evening. The following morning another body of men
would take up the work, and so on, until each company of workingmen had
taken their turn at the work in the quarries. From the time one company
of men leave the quarry for any one of the other duties, which had to be
performed, two weeks elapsed before they again returned. Four hours
comprised a day’s work, and each day found the men at different
employment from the one preceding it, until all of the different
vocations had been temporarily filled.
The party now continued their journey, passing the gold mine on their
way to the cave of winds, or ice. Arriving at the latter place, before
going into the cave they were taken into a small house and given very
warm garments of untanned lion skins, their attendants telling them that
the air was very cold in the cave and the heavy garments would not feel
uncomfortable. The King taking the lead, they were led to a large arched
opening into the side of the mountain. Torches were carried by the
attendants who preceded them.
A loud rumbling, which resembled the noise made by the great cataract of
Niagara, soon fell on their ears, and this increased in volume as they
penetrated farther into the mountain. The passage for some distance
after entering, was about ten feet wide and that many high and large
cakes of ice were piled up on each side as if waiting transportation.
The passage soon widened until they found themselves in a large cave,
the sides of which could not be seen in the darkness.
The air was growing colder each moment and the awful rumbling had become
almost deafening. Far on ahead could be seen numerous lights flickering
in the darkness, and upon our friends asking the King what this meant,
he told them they were used to light the lake on which men were cutting
ice. Here the torches were exchanged for a kind of lantern with a globe
of mica, and before our friends had proceeded much further they realized
why this was done, for a howling wind struck them broadside nearly
knocking them from off their feet. The wind and the deafening noise it
made in its wild rush through this subterranean passage was terrible. It
was fearfully cold, too, and the attendants went among the party and
adjusted the warm fur hoods over the heads and faces, leaving space only
for the eyes and nose. Even these precautions did not save our friends
from the piercing cold, for the blood had been accustomed to the
equatorial heat on the outside and this quick change could not but make
them shiver. Mr. Bruce calculated that the extreme cold would lower the
mercury to 40 degrees, Fah., below zero, but he might have been
mistaken, so long had it been since he experienced such freezing
atmosphere.
On they went, fighting against the wind and cold until they reached the
shore of the lake. Here about one hundred men were at work cutting ice,
using a sort of long saw and an axe with a very large but narrow blade.
The men were bundled up very carefully and worked very fast. The lake
extended as far as could be seen in the darkness and was one solid sheet
of ice with the exception of the place cut by the men, and even a film
was already beginning to form over this. Near where our friends were
standing was a flume or chute declining towards the entrance of the
cave. The blocks of ice were brought to a point directly under this and
being caught in a fork were raised by means of a windlass to the flume,
where they were sent sliding to the entrance. An acre of ice was cut one
day, and the following day another acre was cut, and by the next day, or
at the end of forty-eight hours the ice had gained a thickness of ten
inches over the acre that was cut on the first day. Thus had it gone on
for centuries, each day an acre of ice being cut and supplied to the
inhabitants. Each palace was furnished a quantity of ice sufficient for
its needs. It was used for cooling the atmosphere as well as for drinks
and preserving provisions.
Our friends now being thoroughly chilled, and having seen all they
wished to, they left the cavern and as soon as the villa was entered,
attendants took charge of them, and disrobing them, plunged them into a
hot bath, after which they were given a good rubbing and dressed in the
clothes which they had worn upon arriving. After this a meal was served
them.
At three o’clock a start was made for the gold mine, and upon reaching
this they were put into large cages and lowered down, down, down, until
the very bowels of the earth must have been reached. They could see by
the light of the torches, as they were lowered, the abandoned shafts
which centuries before had probably been mined.
Down they went until the bottom was at last reached and they left the
cage to explore the mines. The air was fearfully hot and would have been
unbearable but for the cool air forced into the mines from above. Miners
were at work, wearing nothing but a breechcloth. The quartz found at
this depth was the richest our friends had ever seen or heard of. Mr.
Graham calculated that it would assay about eighty per cent. pure gold,
and the quartz was easily mined. Not many men were working in this mine,
as the quartz was so heavy with gold, that but very little was needed to
satisfy the demand.
Our friends wondered no longer at the profusion of gold ornaments and
implements. Here was enough gold apparently to furnish the world for
hundreds of years. The shaft which they were now working was easily one
hundred feet wide and ten feet high. Just think of quartz assaying
sixteen hundred pounds to the ton and thousands of tons in sight! Still
these people did not consider it as valuable as iron, of which latter
they had plenty, but which they found so hard to work. Onrai explained
to our friends that the miners only worked one hour at a time and there
were months at times when the mines were not worked at all, owing to an
over-supply of gold. Truly these people were rich if they only knew it,
but wealth was an unknown word to them.
The party, after being shown through some of the unused shafts, where
there was also plenty of quartz, but of an inferior quality, was hoisted
to the surface. The mill for crushing the quartz was shown them and the
process proved very interesting.
They returned to the city in the cool of the evening, well satisfied
with their day’s excursion. The longer our friends remained in this
strange country, and the more they saw of its beauties and wealth, the
more they were astonished at its vast resources. But they had seen only
a small part of its wonders.