others are added if the party is large. No one is, on any account,
permitted to wander in advance of the head guide or linger behind the
one in the rear.

Within the cabin the immediate entrance to the cave is securely closed,
and in order that the door may not be forced from its fastenings by the
roaring wind which shakes it threateningly, it opens in, instead of out.
This wind suggested the name Wind Cave, and will probably be utilized,
at no very distant time, to generate electricity for lighting the
cavern.

The wind is strongest at the surface, and a guide goes down first to
place lights in sheltered nooks where the force has begun to diminish,
about fifty feet below the entrance; and here we light our candles
which, if guarded somewhat, are not extinguished unless the current is
unusually severe. The balance of the descent of one hundred and
fifty-five feet from the surface to the first chamber is easily
accomplished.

This would be the least interesting room in the cave if it were not the
Bride's Chamber, on account of having once been the scene of a marriage
ceremony. But no others are in need of assistance of such romantic
nature, as all are curiously and handsomely decorated, with such a
charming variety of deposits, artistically massed, combined or
contrasted, that every step brings fresh pleasure, and monotony is
nowhere.

Passing from this room by a long, narrow passage, in the walls of which
are observed many beautiful little pockets of crystals, attention is
presently called to Lincoln's Fireplace, a perfectly natural specimen of