INSIDE 167

Beyond lay the electricity works. As I passed in front
of the windows, I caught sight of certain apparatus of
recent invention, not bulky but very complete. There
were none of those machines worked by steam and which
necessitate the use of coal and ‘require a complicated
mechanism. As | anticipated, the current of the cavern’s
lamps, like the dynamos of the tug, is supplied by coils of
extraordinary power. Doubtless this current serves ‘also
for many domestic uses, for heating the Beehive, and for
cooking purposes. I have discovered, too, that it is
applied in an adjacent cavity to stills for the production
of fresh water. The Backcup colonists are not reduced to
collecting the abundant rains that fall on the coast to
quench their thirst. Ata short distance from the factory

"was a reservoir, which I may compare, in proportion, with
those I visited at the Bermudas. It would supply the
needs of a population of ten thousand inhabitants—here
there are one hundred.

I still do not know how to style them. That they and
their chief have serious reasons for living in the bosom
of the earth is obvious, but what are those reasons? .
When religious shut themselves up between the walls of
their convent with the intention of separating themselves
from the rest of humanity, their action is understood.
But truly these subjects of Count d’Artigas resemble
neither Benedictines nor Carthusians!

I continued my promenade through the forest of pillars
until I reached the extreme end of the cave. Noone had
interfered with me; No one had spoken to me. None