distance. The height of the ceiling was determined by E.F. Lee, civil
engineer. This fact in regard to the elevation of the ceiling and the
locality of the Great Hall, was subsequently ascertained, by finding
on the summit of the hill, (a spot never before trodden by man,) an
iron lamp!! The astonishment of the guides, as well as of the whole
party, on beholding the lamp, can be easily imagined; and to this day
they would have been ignorant of its history, but for the accidental
circumstance of an old man being at the Cave Hotel, who, thirty years
ago, was engaged as a miner in the saltpetre establishment of Wilkins
& Gratz. He, on being shown the lamp, said at once, that it had been
found under the crevice pit (a fact that surprised all,); that during
the time Wilkins & Gratz were engaged in the manufacture of saltpetre,
a Mr. Gatewood informed Wilkins, that in all probability, the richest
nitre earth was under the crevice pit. The depth of this pit being
then unknown, Wilkins, to ascertain it, got a rope of 45 feet long,
and fastening this identical lamp to the end of it, lowered it into
the pit, in the doing of which, the string caught on fire, and down
fell the lamp. Wilkins made an offer of two dollars to any one of the
miners who would descend the pit and bring up the lamp. His offer was
accepted by a man, who, in consequence of his diminutive stature, was
nicknamed Little Dave; and the rope being made fast about his waist,
he, torch in hand, was lowered to the full extent of the forty-five
feet. Being then drawn up, the poor fellow was found to be so
excessively alarmed, that he could scarcely articulate; but having
recovered from his fright, and again with the full power of utterance,
he declared that no money could tempt him to try again for the lamp;
and in excuse for such a determination, he related the most marvellous
story of what he had seen--far exceeding the wonderful things which
the unexampled Don Quixote de la Mancha declared he had seen in the
deep cave of Montesinos. Dave was, in fact, suspended at the height of
two hundred and forty feet above the level below. Such is the history
of the _lamp_, as told by the old miner, Holton, the correctness of
which was very soon verified; for guides having been sent to the place
where the lamp was found, and persons at the same time stationed at
the mouth of the crevice pit, their proximity was at once made
manifest by the very audible sound of each other's voic