kindled on the altar, bringing into light this strange temple; then, as
the flame burnt out, the whole vanished as if by magic. Passing across
a wooden bridge, resting on piers of salt, they entered a vast irregular
vault in which were two obelisks of salt, to commemorate the visit of
Francis the First and his empress. As they reached the floor, a boy ran
along the bridge above with a burning Bengal light, which threw flashes
of blue lustre on the obelisks, the scarred walls, the vast arches, the
entrance to the deeper halls, and the lofty roof, fretted with the picks
of the workmen. Another hall was entered, with cavernous tunnels at the
farther end, passing through one of which, they embarked upon a lake in
a heavy, square boat, and entered a gloomy passage, over the entrance to
which was inscribed, in salt letters, "Good luck to you." Midway in the
tunnel the halls at either end were suddenly illuminated, and a crash,
as of a hundred cannon bellowing through the vaults, shook the air in
such a way that the boat had not ceased to tremble when they landed in
the farther hall. The noise was produced by a single gun.
A tablet, on which was inscribed, "A hearty welcome," greeted them on
landing. At a depth of 450 feet their journey ceased, although they
were but half-way to the bottom. About 1500 men are employed in the
mines, who labour only six hours at a time, and live in the upper world.
The blocks are first marked out on the surface by a series of grooves.
One side is then deepened to the required thickness, and wedges being
inserted under the block it is soon split off. This salt bed occupies a
space of 9000 feet in length and 4000 in width, and consists of five
successive stages, separated from each other by intervening strata of
from 100 to 150 feet in thickness, and reaching to the depth of 1500
feet.
More than ten years ago a serious accident, which threatened the
destruction of the mine, occurred. While boring, to obtain some potash
salts, through an aquiferous stratum, a spring was tapped, which poured
an immense quantity of water into the lower galleries. The inhabitants
feared not only the ruin of the mine, but the falling in of their houses
from the melting of the salt pillars; but fortunately the inundation was
confined to the lower galleries, and a powerful steam-engine being set
to work, the water was again pumped out, and the spring blocked up.
However, so vast are the excavations that it would have taken many years
to fill them.
Contrasting with the bright glitter of the salt mines of Wieliczka are
the gloomy slate quarries of Saint Peter's Mount, near Maestricht, in
the Netherlands, the most extensive in the world. For centuries they
have been worked, both for building and manuring, and probably
benefiting the agriculturist more than the architect. In spring and
summer the labourers occupy themselves in their fields above ground, and
not until winter approaches do they begin to burrow in the entrails of
the earth.
The two travellers followed a trusty guide through those endless
passages, which constantly crossed each other, either to the left hand
or to the right. Darkness to be felt, silence profound, reigned
everywhere, even the human voice seemed to die away without awakening an
echo--the only sound to be heard being an occasional dropping of water
from the roof into a small pool below.
Suddenly the guide extinguished his torch, when, bold as they were, and
well accustomed to subterranean regions, a sensation of awe crept over
them. Their first impulse was to feel for the wall, for in vain their
eyes sought a ray of light, as in vain, also, their ears listened for
the slightest sound.
Neither spoke for some minutes, and they experienced a sensation of
relief when the guide relit his torch. Numbers of hapless beings have
been lost in these trackless galleries, and here and there are
inscriptions on the walls, notifying that a corpse was found on the
ground below. One poor workman lost his way, and roamed about until his
torch died out of his burnt fingers. The lamp of another was
overturned, and he in vain endeavoured to find his way out of some
remote gallery.
A French geologist while exploring the quarry discovered a corpse
shrivelled to a mummy, the hat lying close to his head, a rosary in his
hand. It was conjectured to be the body of a workman who had died more
than half-a-century before, the dry air and the absence of insects
explaining the preservation of the corpse. Two centuries ago four
Franciscan monks resolved to construct a chapel in honour of their
tutelar saint. In order to be able to retrace their steps, they took
with them a large ball of twine, leaving one end secured to a spot where
people were constantly passing. Their twine unwound, they at length
reached a vast hall, probably not visited for many ages. Near the
entrance one of them drew a sketch of the convent, and wrote beneath it
the date of their discovery. When about to return, what was their
horror to find that their twine had snapped. They must have searched
for it in vain, for never more did they return.
At last the prior, alarmed at their absence, sent parties to explore the
excavations, but so vast were they even then, that seven days elapsed
before the corpses of the hapless friars were found, their faces
downwards, and their hands folded as if in prayer.
During the siege of Maestricht by the French Republic, a party of the
besiegers occupied the quarries. The Austrians who garrisoned Fort
Pierre at the back of the mountain, formed a plan to drive them out, and
tunnelling made their way towards their enemies. Although they marched
silently along, their torches betrayed them, and the besiegers pouring
in a volley of musketry killed a large number, made prisoners of some,
and drove the rest into the depths of the cavern.
On the banks of the Nile are several prodigious stone quarries, from
which the cities of ancient Egypt were built. Perhaps the largest is
that of Haggar Silsibis. Here passages, broad as streets, with walls
fifty or sixty feet high, now stretching straight forward, now curved,
extend from the east bank of the river into the heart of the mountain,
where halls have been hollowed out large enough to contain the Roman
Colosseum, the rough hewn irregular roof resting upon immense square or
many-sided pillars, some of which are eighty to a hundred feet in
circumference. Here numerous blocks, already completely separated from
the rock, appear ready to be transported; the labours of the quarry-men
having suddenly been arrested by the invasion of the Conqueror, who
overthrew the priests of Isis.
One of the most curious quarries of ancient days is found near Syracuse.
The greater portion is a hundred feet below the level of the earth, and
of vast extent, the whole hewn out of rock as hard as marble, the blocks
thus obtained being employed in building Syracuse. It is converted by
the monks, who have a convent above it, into a garden--a romantic and
beautiful spot, as no wind can touch it. It is filled with a variety of
vines and shrubs and fruit trees, among which oranges, citrons,
pomegranates, and figs grow luxuriantly, and obtain an unusual size.
Sicily produces sulphur in large quantities--the chief sulphur pits
being near Girgenti. Most of the inhabitants are employed in them, to
the neglect of the rich soil of their island; they labour away in the
most primitive manner, pickaxe and spade being the only implements
employed.
When a promising vein is struck, the miners set to work, and filling
their baskets with the sulphur, carry it out and throw it into large
heaps of a conical shape. These mounds are covered over with moist
clay, some openings being left for the escape of smoke; the bottom is
then ignited, and the matted sulphur flows out through grooves into
pans, where it congeals in solid masses. The passages to the mines are
so narrow, that persons can with difficulty pass each other; they then
expand into high vaults, the roofs of which are ornamented with
beautiful crystals of celestine and gypsum. On account of the excessive
heat, the workmen labour in a nearly nude state, their dark brown skins
sprinkled with light yellow sulphur dust, making them look savage and
strange in the extreme. Towards the end of the last century, the
sulphur mine of Sommatin caught fire, the conflagration causing the
complete abandonment of the pit. For two years it raged, until the
mountain, suddenly bursting asunder, a stream of molten sulphur gushed
forth, and precipitated itself into the neighbouring river. The mass of
sulphur, amounting to upwards of 40,000 tons, was thus obtained by the
owners of the former pit, who had believed themselves ruined.
There are sulphur mines in different parts of the world, the largest of
which are in Japan, but too remote to be worked with advantage. Gypsum,
or sulphate of lime, better known as Plaster of Paris, is found in
prodigious quantities at Montmartre, close to that city; but as it can
readily be worked without having recourse to subterranean excavation, it
need not be mentioned further.
When gypsum assumes an opaque, consistent, and semi-transparent form, it
is known as Alabaster. The largest quarries are near Volterra, in
Italy. Here the whole population have been employed for centuries,
either in cutting it out of the mine, or in converting it into elegant
forms of great variety, which are sent to all parts of the world.
Great Britain possesses inexhaustible alabaster mines in the
neighbourhood of Derby. Some is worked on the spot, but the finest
blocks are sent to the studios of sculptors.
Quicksilver, or mercury, is among the rarest of metals. The only two
important mines in Europe are at Almaden, in Spain, and Idria, in
Carniola. The former, situated on the Sierra Morena, was for many years
farmed off to the Fuggers of Augsburg, but are now worked either by
government or private companies. This was one of the most interesting
spots visited by the two travellers.
Entering a spacious tunnel, completely walled with solid masonry, they
advanced into the very bosom of the mountain. Here galleries branch out
in various directions, hewn in the slate forming the matrix of the vein.
One of them leads to a vast circular hall, called the Boveda de Santa
Clara. At one time a horse gin was employed in this hall for raising
the ore, but at present this work is performed through a shaft
descending to the lowest level of the mine. Convenient steps lead down
from another gallery to the first working level, and thence the descent
is by short ladders to deeper storeys. The galleries are of a
sufficient height to allow a person to work upright. The upper ones are
dry, but the lower are humid and damp, although the water is easily
raised by hand-pumps from storey to storey into a large receiver, which
is emptied by a steam-engine. So extremely rich are the veins, that
although worked for many centuries, the mine has scarcely yet reached a
depth of 1140 feet. The present quantity raised annually amounts to
eighty-thousand hundredweight of pure mercury. The ore known as
cinnabar is of a dark-red colour, and gives a beautiful appearance to
the galleries. Sometimes when a hewer detaches a block of ore with his
pick mass of quicksilver, the size of a pigeon's egg, rolls out, and
leaping along the floor, divides into thousands of small drops. Owing
to the imperfect apparatus with which the ore is sublimated, nearly
one-half is lost. Formerly criminals only were employed in these mines.
They were conducted at sunrise from prison by a subterranean passage
into the mine, and compelled to toil on until the evening, when they
were led back again to their dungeons. In a few years the greater
number died, through inhaling the poisonous vapours of the mercury.
Reduced to despair, a century and a-half ago, they set fire to the
galleries, which, being then constructed of wood, were destroyed, and
mining operations put a stop to for many years. Only free labourers are
now employed, who are not allowed to work longer than six hours a-day.
Most of these, however, die between the ages of thirty and forty, and
those who exist longer are affected by palsy.
The quicksilver mines of Idria were discovered upwards of three
centuries ago by a peasant who had placed a tub under a spring issuing
from the mountain side. On attempting to move it, he found it
excessively heavy, and on examining the bottom he saw that it was partly
full of a heavy liquid, shining like silver. Ignorant of the value of
the substance, he had sense enough to take it to a goldsmith, without
mentioning the place where he had found it. In course of time, however,
a man named Anderlein, having bribed him, became master of the secret,
and with several others began to work the mine. In the next century the
Venetians drove out the Germans, but were finally compelled by the
Emperor Maximilian to give it up, and he restored it to its rightful
owners. The mine has since been worked by the State. Ingress to the
mine can be obtained by descending a convenient flight of steps, with
galleries running off here and there from landing-places, or by
descending in a few minutes through a perpendicular shaft in one of the
tubs by which the ore is raised. The galleries lead to the various
storeys of the mine, the lowest of which is 145 fathoms beneath the
surface. The vein itself descends to an unknown depth, and is
horizontal, but its extent has not yet been measured. The ores being
embedded in limestone of a loose nature, all the galleries had from the
first to be supported by wooden props. The wood has, on several
occasions caught fire, with disastrous results. Early in this century
the labourers observed a thick smoke issuing from the deepest part of
the mine. It rose higher and higher, spreading through the upper
galleries, yet no fire was to be seen, nor sound of flames heard.
Some of the workmen attempted to reach the scene of the fire, but were
driven back by the dense and suffocating smoke, impregnated with
vapours. Endeavours were made to smother the fire, but though the mine
remained closed for five weeks, no sooner was it re-opened than the fire
burst forth more furiously than at first. The howling of the flames
ascending from the lowest depths of the pit awed the spectators, and the
mercurial and sulphureous fumes arising from it threatened instant
destruction to all who might approach. The director of the mine, as a
last resource, came to the decision of flooding the works, and a river
turned into the shaft ran down it for two days and three nights. At
first no perceptible effect was produced, but on the second a terrific
explosion shook the mountain as if an earthquake had taken place. The
huts near the opening were blown to pieces, and even the stone houses on
the slopes of the hill, fell with tremendous crashes. Water, however,
gained the victory. Gradually the vapour dispersed, and after a few
weeks the workmen were able to descend into the pit. They found,
however, the galleries torn up, the vaulted roofs burst, and the stairs
destroyed. It took two years to pump out the water, which, it is said,
poisoned all the fish in the Idriza.
High pay being offered to any who would venture in to collect the
quicksilver, which had accumulated in considerable quantities, many,
tempted by the bribe, made their way into the workings, but overcome by
the mercurial vapours, several perished.
The galleries have now been formed of stone, seven feet high and six
feet broad, though some are still propped up with wood. They are of
immense extent, amounting to no less than fifty miles. As late as 1846
another fire occurred in the wooden galleries, which was quenched by
putting that part under water. The workmen labour in a tropical heat
and an atmosphere full of deadly vapours. It is no wonder that a
premature age overtakes many of them, and that young men are seen
trembling in every limb, though it is said that those who survive their
forty-fifth year may live on until they are sixty or seventy. To
transport mercury, the greatest care is required. It is first packed in
sacks of sheepskin, tanned with alum. The sack, being pressed and
punched to ascertain if it is sound, is enclosed in a second skin.
These are then placed in a small cask, and the cask again in a square
box. Notwithstanding these precautions, as the sacks sometimes burst,
the loss of the metal is great, and the mercury is now generally
transported in large iron bottles, the stoppers being screwed down by
means of a machine; in this condition, it is exported to England.
CHAPTER SEVEN.
STALACTITE AND ICE-CAVERNS.
Numberless and varied are the cavernous regions below the earth,
presenting the strangest and often awe-inspiring sights to the
spectator. In some rivers flow hundreds of feet beneath the green
fields and widespreading trees.
Through the caverns of Adolsberg, Planina, and Upper Laibach flows a
river known as the Poik, which then assumes other denominations,
according to its locality. In some places it forms cataracts, leaping
over the most picturesquely grouped rocks. In others it has forced a
passage amid them, and then flows gently on.
Our travellers resolved to undertake a voyage on the Poik, and embarked
in a boat, their progress being stream upwards through the celebrated
cave of Planina. They had to be cautious, for often the current ran
with great rapidity, and to keep a watchful eye for rocks which lay
hidden beneath the water.
Rowing on for about 600 feet from the entrance of the cavern, at the
end of a magnificent dome, they found that the river occupied the whole
space. To this part persons on foot could proceed, as the ground on
either side of the river was level. Now passing through a portal 48
feet high and about 24 broad, and as well proportioned as if cut out by
the hand of man, their ears were saluted by the thundering roar of a
distant cataract. As the archway widened, they suddenly emerged on a
lake 250 feet in length and 150 broad, beyond which the cave divided
into two arms, forming the channels of two streams, whose confluent
waters formed the lake.
The walls of the cavern on either side rose abruptly out of the water,
with the exception of one small landing-place at the foot of a
projecting ridge. Here and there hung masses of stalactite, resembling
a petrified cascade, the rest of the rock being black and naked. So
high was the vault that their torches could not pierce the gloom, the
impressiveness of which was increased by the roar of a waterfall heard
through the channel to the left.
Hitherto their progress had been easy, but they now resolved to proceed
up the left branch. They had frequently to get out of their boat, and
wading, drag her over the shallows. The voyage terminated at the end of
a small hall with a circular dome, the floor being a lake 180 feet in
length, and from 40 to 45 feet in depth. In the roof appeared a chasm,
sloping upwards through a small aperture, in which a violent current of
air set in, almost extinguishing their torches.
Beyond the mouth of the chasm another gallery opened out, into which the
persevering travellers penetrated. Nothing could surpass the beauty of
the spar crystals with which its walls were encrusted. At the entrance
stood a white figure, which might easily be supposed to be an angel,
guarding the entrance with a glittering sword, threatening all who
should venture with profane hands into his sanctuary.
Further on, projected in bold relief, was a colossal statue of a
monarch, sceptre in hand. As they proceeded they passed groups of
stalagmitic cones of all shapes and sizes. Some like the smallest
icicles, others rising six feet in height from the ground, as thick as a
human figure, the whole shining and glittering as the light of the
torches fell upon them, and standing out in bold relief against the dark
background formed by the brown wall of the cavern.
Returning to the central hall, they made their way up the eastern
branch, which is much larger than the one they had just visited, the
main stream flowing through it. As they pulled up, the increasing roar
of waters announced a large waterfall. They found that enormous masses
of stone, falling from the roof, had narrowed the bed of the river to
about fifteen feet, over which the water shot in a broad sheet, fully
ten feet in height. The effect as it rushed over the jet-black rocks,
casting up flakes of milky white foam, when illuminated by the torches,
was very beautiful.
Having hauled up the boat over the rugged mound, they again embarked,
encountering a couple of reefs. They then proceeded on between steep
walls with a free navigation, for upwards of four miles. In many places
the roof was adorned with draperies formed of snow-white stalactites,
but generally the black walls alone appeared. In some parts the roof
descended so low that they were compelled to lie down, and shove the
boat along by holding to the roof above their heads, until at length
they found that they could proceed no further.
Of the world beneath the surface some of the most beautiful scenes are
presented by the ice-caves of France and Switzerland. One of the most
curious is the glaciere "Grace Dieu," near Besancon. In the centre of
the cave rose three stalagmites of ice. The central mass was 66.5 feet
in circumference. Some distance above the ice-floor on the right was a
small fir-tree, which had been fixed in the ground, and had become
completely covered so that the tree itself had disappeared, its crystal
incrustation showing every elegance of variety in form. From each twig
of the different boughs, complicated groups of icicles streamed down.
The mass to the left, however, was the grandest and most beautiful. It
consisted of two vast heads, with several others of less height
resembling a group of lions' heads bending down, richly decked with icy
manes, huge masses measuring 76.5 feet in circumference. On looking at
this column from the side opposite the entrance to the cave, so that it
stood in the centre of the light pouring down in a long slope from the
outer world, the transparency of the ice made the whole appear as if it
were set in a frame of impalpable liquid blue, the effect of the light
penetrating through the mass at its extreme edges.
The Schafloch or Trou-aux-Moutons, a vast ice-cave on the Rothhorn, in
the canton of Berne, is equally beautiful and curious. It takes its
name from the fact that on the approach of a storm, the sheep and goats
fly to it for shelter, although never going as far in as the place where
the ice commences. The travellers entered the cave amid masses of loose
stone, with which in a short time the ice was found to intermingle until
it entirely hid the naked rock. They passed between two magnificent
columns of ice which formed the portal to the fairy cavern. The floor,
composed of ice, rose on either side to meet these columns in a graceful
swelling curve, so that it appeared as if their bases expanded and met
in the middle of the cave.
They had now to make their way amidst stalagmites rising from the floor,
met by stalactites descending from the roof. All the time as they
twisted in and out among the glittering pillars of ice, endeavouring to
do as little harm as possible, they were accompanied by an incessant
fall of small portions, shivering and glittering on reaching the ground.
Passing beyond the two columns, they saw before them a perfect sea of
ice, which became broader and broader until they reached the edge of a
magnificent ice-fall, smooth and unbroken, beyond which they were unable
to penetrate.
They afterwards visited another beautiful ice-cavern known as the
glacier of Saint Sivres, into which a stream flows, becoming completely
congealed.
There are many other ice-caverns in Bohemia, Hungary, the Hartz
Mountains, and in various parts of North America. One of them, however,
surpassing in size the others, is the cave of Yermalik, in the province
of Kondooz, in the centre of Asia. When Kondooz was invaded by the
savage warrior Genghis Khan, 700 men with their wives and children took
refuge in this cavern, and offered so brave a defence, that after
attempting in vain to destroy them by fire, the barbarous invader built
up the entrance with large blocks of stone, and left them to perish of
hunger.