I had been assured by various people who professed to have “been there” that the stage-road of 9 m. between Cave City and the Cave itself would prove an excellent path for the bicycle; but the hotel-man told me differently, and so, on that sixth day of my tour, I did no active wheeling, but was dragged by horse-power over a road so indescribably rough and precipitous that the mere recollection thereof causes me to groan sympathetically for the sufferings of the less-hardened tourists who are all the while being jolted across it. The $3 fare, which the owner of the stage-line charged for the round trip, seemed to me a small sum to exact for 18 m. of such straining and scrambling of horse-flesh; nor was I disposed to quarrel with the fee of $2 which I paid the hotel people for supplying me with a venerable negro guide, under whose pilotage I look two hours’ tramp of 5 or 6 m. amid the dark and dreadful wonders of the Cave. As for the 75 c. representing the cost of a dinner, I rejoiced at the expenditure; for I had had “nothing good to eat” since I left Chicago, and here, at last, was a chance to sit down at a table which had been spread with a due regard for cleanliness, and even an attempt at elegance, to partake of well-cooked food other than “hog and hominy,” and to be waited on by servants who were neatly dressed and reasonably well-trained for their duties. The hotel, which is managed by the owners of the Mammoth Cave, is quite a large establishment, and serves as a sort of summer resort for the wealthy people of Louisville and Nashville, and other intermediate cities. Of the transient visitors it seems not unlikely that a majority may be foreigners, since every tourist from abroad ranks the Cave second only to Niagara on his list of objective points. Three Austrians arrived on the same forenoon as myself, and six English people were jolted back to Cave City with me in the afternoon, but I was the only American. All the Kentuckians whom I questioned while on my way thither expressed very great pride in the Cave as an honor to their State, and “the greatest natural wonder on the continent”; but only a surprisingly few of them had ever visited it personally. Expression was usually made, however, of a general wish and intention to “go down to the Cave the next time a good excursion party is made up”; and I was assured by every one that I would not regret an inspection of its mysteries and marvels. This proved true enough, of course; but the most agreeable sight of all was that presented by the green trees, and blue sky, and bright sunshine, when I escaped from the gloomy wonders of the Cave into the open light of day.