size; in this a pyramid of salt is left
untouched, and by its downward growth marks the progress of excavation.
At the foot of this pyramid is a little altar, where every year, on the
3d of March, mass is celebrated with great ceremony, that being the day
of Kunigunde, the patron saint of the mines.

One of our expeditions was to visit the mines at Ronasick. Here, too, is
an enormous cave with a dome-shaped roof, one hundred and fifty feet
above the surface of the water, which covers the floor to the amazing
depth, it is said, of three hundred feet. Part of the visitor's
programme is to be paddled about on this subterranean lake. We embarked
on a raft slowly propelled by rowers; a cresset fire burning brightly at
the prow of our craft cast strange lights and shadows on the black
waters, added to which the shimmering reflection of the white-ribbed
walls had a very singular effect. But the sensation was still more weird
when we saw other mystic forms appearing from out the black darkness;
first a mere speck of red light was visible, till nearing us we beheld
other boats freighted with grim-looking figures that glided past into
the further darkness. These phantom-like forms, steering their rafts
through the black and silent waters, were grotesquely lit up from time
to time by the pulsating red firelight. It might have been a scene from
Dante's 'Inferno'!

It was with the sense of escape from a living tomb that we emerged from
the depths below into the upper air, and here awaited us a sight never
to be forgotten, more especially for its singular contrast to the horrid
gloom of the under-world. Here, above ground, in the blessed free
expanse of earth and sky, we beheld the heavens ablaze with all the
intensest glory of a magnificent sunset. One's soul in deep gladness
drank in the ineffable loveliness of nature, as if athirst for the
beauty of light and life.

[Footnote 23: Journal of Agricultural Society, vol. x. Part xi. No.
xx.]

CHAPTER XXXIV.

The Tokay district--Visit at Schloss G------Wild-boar
hunting--Incidents of the chase.

My first expedition to the Tokay district was in the winter; I was then
the guest of Baron V----, who has a charming chateau, surrounded by an
English garden, in this celebrated place of vineyards.

In the winter there is a very fair amount of good sport in this part of
Hungary. Sometimes one is enabled to go out hare-shooting in sledges; of
course the horses' bells