accomodate thousands, a solid projection of the wall of the Cave to
serve as a pulpit, and a few feet back a place for an organ and choir.
In this great temple of nature, religious service has been frequently
held, and it requires but a slight effort on the part of a speaker, to
make himself distinctly heard by the largest congregation.

Sometimes the guides climb up the high and ragged sides, and suspend
lamps in the crevices and on the projections of the rock, thus
lighting up a scene of wild grandeur and sublimity.

Concerts too have been held here, and the melody of song has been
heard, such as would delight the ear of a Catalini or a Malibran.

Leaving the church you will observe, on ascending, a large embankment
of lixiviated earth thrown out by the miners more than thirty years
ago, the print of wagon wheels and the tracks of oxen, as distinctly
defined as though they were made but yesterday; and continuing on for
a short distance, you arrive at the Second Hoppers. Here are seen the
ruins of the old nitre works, leaching vats, pump frames and two lines
of wooden pipes; one to lead fresh water from the dripping spring to
the vats filled with the nitrous earth, and the other to convey the
lye drawn from the large reservoir, back to the furnace at the mouth
of the Cave.

The quantity of nitrous earth contained in the Cave is "sufficient to
supply the whole population of the globe with saltpetre."

"The dirt gives from three to five pounds of nitrate of lime to the
bushel, requiring a large proportion of fixed alkali to produce the
required crystalization, and when left in the Cave become