DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0137
THE SALT MINES OF POLAND. 115
they are all down; but the descent is very slow and gra-
dual, and it is a very uncomfortable time, while they all
recollect that their lives depend upon the goodness of the
rope. They are carried down a narrow and dark well to
the depth of GOO feet perpendicular; this is in reality an
immense depth, but the terror and tediousness of the de-
scent, makes it appear to most people, vastly more than it
is. As soon as the first miner touches the ground at the bot-
tom, he slips out of the rope and sets his companion upon
his legs, and the rope continues descending till all the rest
do the same. The place where they are set down is per-
fectly dark, but the miners strike fire and light a small
lamp, by means of which, (each taking the stranger he has
care of, by the arm,) they lead them through a number of
strange passages and meanders, all descending lower and
lower, till they come to certain ladders, by which they de-
scend an immense depth, and this through passages per-
fectly dark. The damp, cold, and darkness of these places,
and the horror of being so many yards under ground, gene-
rally make strangers heartily repent before they get thus far;
but when at the bottom, they are well rewarded for their
pains, by a sight that could never have been expected after
so much horror. At the foot of the last ladder the stran-
ger is received in a small dark cavern, walled up perfectly
close on all sides. To increase the terror of the scene, it
is usual for the guide to pretend the utmost terror on the
apprehension of his lamp going out, declaring they must
perish in the mazes of the mine if it did. When arrived in
this dreary chamber, he puts out his light, as if by acci-
dent ; and, after much cant, catches the stranger by the
hand, and drags him through a narrow creek into the body
of the mine, when there bursts at once upon his view a
world; the lustre of which is scarcely to be imagined.——It
is a spacious plain, containing a whole people, a kind of
subterranean republic, with hpuses, carriages, roads, &c.
This
they are all down; but the descent is very slow and gra-
dual, and it is a very uncomfortable time, while they all
recollect that their lives depend upon the goodness of the
rope. They are carried down a narrow and dark well to
the depth of GOO feet perpendicular; this is in reality an
immense depth, but the terror and tediousness of the de-
scent, makes it appear to most people, vastly more than it
is. As soon as the first miner touches the ground at the bot-
tom, he slips out of the rope and sets his companion upon
his legs, and the rope continues descending till all the rest
do the same. The place where they are set down is per-
fectly dark, but the miners strike fire and light a small
lamp, by means of which, (each taking the stranger he has
care of, by the arm,) they lead them through a number of
strange passages and meanders, all descending lower and
lower, till they come to certain ladders, by which they de-
scend an immense depth, and this through passages per-
fectly dark. The damp, cold, and darkness of these places,
and the horror of being so many yards under ground, gene-
rally make strangers heartily repent before they get thus far;
but when at the bottom, they are well rewarded for their
pains, by a sight that could never have been expected after
so much horror. At the foot of the last ladder the stran-
ger is received in a small dark cavern, walled up perfectly
close on all sides. To increase the terror of the scene, it
is usual for the guide to pretend the utmost terror on the
apprehension of his lamp going out, declaring they must
perish in the mazes of the mine if it did. When arrived in
this dreary chamber, he puts out his light, as if by acci-
dent ; and, after much cant, catches the stranger by the
hand, and drags him through a narrow creek into the body
of the mine, when there bursts at once upon his view a
world; the lustre of which is scarcely to be imagined.——It
is a spacious plain, containing a whole people, a kind of
subterranean republic, with hpuses, carriages, roads, &c.
This