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would surely be enough to keep us from dying of
hunger for a week or fortnight and that on any supposition
whatever either the same or other men would
come to see what was become of us in that time.
We had not however <add< had </add> the pleasure of making our reflections
in this situation above half an hour, when a glimmering light
appeared towards the way out. In any country but this
not exceprting England I should have been under
some anxiety as the instant of seeing the light as doubting whether it
might be friends or foes who brought it. It proved to be two
boys whose business had been to look after the horses which
were left near the mouth of the Cavern, and whom the men
had sent to us in their stead we could learn nothing
from these boys as to the reason why why the men had left us: all that they
could tell us was that they were lain down to sleep
on the outside of the cavern by a good fire. Although I was determined
not to quit the place till I had explored
all the turnings & windings in it, yet I thought the
most certain way of getting the men back again was
to go & fetch them: therefore loading ourselves with some
of the choicest stones we had collected we made our way
out to the open air; there true enough we found the men all
asleep before a large fire. the reasons they gave were
for leaving us were simple enough. They were too tired
to another days fatigue without sleeping
and not sleep in so cold a place. You must
understand the Russian peasants are used to sleep in
a degree of heat which would be very disagreeable to
those not accustomed to it. They said they had left 6
candles burning and had sent the 2 boys as soon as
they could. I staid half an hour by their fire
and in the mean time divided my company into
3 fo <hirend="underline"> detatchments</hi> for the purpose of taking different
courses for the better exploring all the parts of the
cave. I cut a great number of pieces of paper of 3 different figures
of which each took detatchment took a separate
figure so as that by scattering these pieces of paper
in the way one party might know where the other
had been. Thus prepared we returned to our subterraneous
employment. we were now so well exercised in
the scrambling up & down the steep places that in about
7 or 8 hours there was not a hole but what some part
of the company had been in: after which collecting together
the stones which we had chosen selected from different
parts we with no small pains made our way out with
them, and set off on our return. The colour of our
cloaths skins and everything we had about us, however
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Identifier: | JB/539/269/001"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 539. |
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1782-01-02 |
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539 |
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269 |
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001 |
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Correspondence |
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Samuel Bentham |
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