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himself of an obcasional soliloquy upon the increasing heat of the day ; the ladies heeded not , and Kutcher , giving up all responsibility on their account , resigned himself at length to silence . "We had ascended 900 feet , and now alighted at an edifice of such questionable architecture that it was difficult to decide as to whether man or beast owned it for a habitation .
" Surely the ladies are not going to venture into the salt-mines ! " exclaimed Kutcher , in a remonstrative tone . " And wherefore not , good , friend ? " But Kutcher deigned no reply beyond a groan and shake of the head .
We had waited a few minutes in an empty whitewashed room , where , beckoned into an adjoining apartment by a hard , half-pickledlooking creature of our own sex , we soon found ourselves—ton gre malgre— -under process of disrobement ; being supplied , in lieu of our own habiliments , with a costume unique as startling ; Turkish
trowsers , a leather jacket and helmet , and shoes or rather brogues , whose similitude probably exists not between this and the bog of Allan . Perchance Mrs . Lot the Second perceived among us an expression of hesitation as to the propriety of appearing in public , thus transmogrified ; for taking warning , it may be , from a celebrated family example of the evil of turning back , she hurried us , heedless of all remonstrance , into the presence of our lords and masters , whose
alarm at this usurpation of costume was somewhat modified by the extreme comicality of our appearance . "We were not , however , without our share of merriment , for the gentlemen of our party had undergone a change of dress hardly less remarkable than our own , the posterior portion of their respective jackets being furnished with a leathern flap or queue , whereof , as
directed by our guides , we each possessed ourselves , with strict injunctions not for a moment to relax our grasp under pain of dangers manifold . Thus , two by two , each couple preceded by a torchbearer , we entered the first shaft of the mine . There is no beauty in these long catacomb-like tunnels . Their grimy red walls and low roofs glisten not with the light of crystals , break into no fantastic forms , and but for an occasional chink , where the pure white salt betrays itself , might pass for red sandstone or clay .
We had waded a hundred yards or so through briny mud when our onward course seemed suddenly to be arrested . A dead wall rose before us , and no diverging pathway gave promise of further variety in our expedition . A halt was sounded when our leading miner , like one of another—not a better—world , began slowly to descend into the earth before us ! A few seconds , and , Zamicl-like ,
his head and shoulders alone visible in the concentrated torch-glare , which rose red and lurid from the pit into which he was sinking , he beckoned to the foremost of our party to follow . Alas , I had lost my steersman ! With a whizz he had descended into Erebus , while the fiery element which surrounded him gradually diminished upon our sight to the magnitude of a mere spark , and was finally quenched
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
himself of an obcasional soliloquy upon the increasing heat of the day ; the ladies heeded not , and Kutcher , giving up all responsibility on their account , resigned himself at length to silence . "We had ascended 900 feet , and now alighted at an edifice of such questionable architecture that it was difficult to decide as to whether man or beast owned it for a habitation .
" Surely the ladies are not going to venture into the salt-mines ! " exclaimed Kutcher , in a remonstrative tone . " And wherefore not , good , friend ? " But Kutcher deigned no reply beyond a groan and shake of the head .
We had waited a few minutes in an empty whitewashed room , where , beckoned into an adjoining apartment by a hard , half-pickledlooking creature of our own sex , we soon found ourselves—ton gre malgre— -under process of disrobement ; being supplied , in lieu of our own habiliments , with a costume unique as startling ; Turkish
trowsers , a leather jacket and helmet , and shoes or rather brogues , whose similitude probably exists not between this and the bog of Allan . Perchance Mrs . Lot the Second perceived among us an expression of hesitation as to the propriety of appearing in public , thus transmogrified ; for taking warning , it may be , from a celebrated family example of the evil of turning back , she hurried us , heedless of all remonstrance , into the presence of our lords and masters , whose
alarm at this usurpation of costume was somewhat modified by the extreme comicality of our appearance . "We were not , however , without our share of merriment , for the gentlemen of our party had undergone a change of dress hardly less remarkable than our own , the posterior portion of their respective jackets being furnished with a leathern flap or queue , whereof , as
directed by our guides , we each possessed ourselves , with strict injunctions not for a moment to relax our grasp under pain of dangers manifold . Thus , two by two , each couple preceded by a torchbearer , we entered the first shaft of the mine . There is no beauty in these long catacomb-like tunnels . Their grimy red walls and low roofs glisten not with the light of crystals , break into no fantastic forms , and but for an occasional chink , where the pure white salt betrays itself , might pass for red sandstone or clay .
We had waded a hundred yards or so through briny mud when our onward course seemed suddenly to be arrested . A dead wall rose before us , and no diverging pathway gave promise of further variety in our expedition . A halt was sounded when our leading miner , like one of another—not a better—world , began slowly to descend into the earth before us ! A few seconds , and , Zamicl-like ,
his head and shoulders alone visible in the concentrated torch-glare , which rose red and lurid from the pit into which he was sinking , he beckoned to the foremost of our party to follow . Alas , I had lost my steersman ! With a whizz he had descended into Erebus , while the fiery element which surrounded him gradually diminished upon our sight to the magnitude of a mere spark , and was finally quenched