. The boy travellers in the Russian empire: adventures of two youths in a journey in European and Asiatic Russia, with accounts of a tour across DESCENDING THE SHAFT. years, and had never lost a day from illness. We had supposed it wouldbe damp and cold, but, on the contrary, found it dry and of an agreea-ble temperature, which remains nearly the same all through the year. Eodoubt the salt has much to do with this healthy condition. Occasionally 28 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN THE RUSSL^N EMPIRE. liydrogen gas collects in some of tlie shafts which are not properly venti-lated, and there ha
. The boy travellers in the Russian empire: adventures of two youths in a journey in European and Asiatic Russia, with accounts of a tour across DESCENDING THE SHAFT. years, and had never lost a day from illness. We had supposed it wouldbe damp and cold, but, on the contrary, found it dry and of an agreea-ble temperature, which remains nearly the same all through the year. Eodoubt the salt has much to do with this healthy condition. Occasionally 28 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN THE RUSSL^N EMPIRE. liydrogen gas collects in some of tlie shafts which are not properly venti-lated, and there have been explosions of fire-damp which destroyed a goodmany lives. Tliese accidents were the result of carelessness either of the. LAMP-BEARERS. miners or their superintendents, and since their occurrence a more rigidsystem of inspection has been established. VVe stopped at the bottom of the shaft, which is about three hundredfeet deep; there we were released from our fastenings and allowed to useour feet again. Then we were guided through a perfect labyrinth of pas-sages, up and down ladders, along narrow paths, into halls spacious enoughfor the reception of an emperor, and again into little nooks where men A SUBTERRANEAN CITY. 29 were occupied in excavcating the salt. For several hours we wanderedthere, losing all knowledge of the points of compass, and if we had beenleft to ourselves our chances of emerging again into daylight would havebeen utterly hopeless. And here let me give you a few figures about the salt-mines ofWieliczka. I cannot promise that they are entirely accurate, but they aredrawn from the best sources within our reach. Some were obtained fromthe under-officials of the mines who accompanied us
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