50 Contributions to Physical Geography. 



into innumerable shapes. Sometimes it dilates into a broad 

 thin plate, almost transparent in the light of a lamp ; some- 

 times this plate curves itself round in a circular form ; some- 

 times the descending part tapers to a point, which rests on the 

 broad surface of the ascending stalagmite. The walls are en- 

 tirely coated with the same substance, and, in the smaller 

 grottoes, it is so pure, that travellers have covered it with 

 names written in pencil, some of which have already resisted 

 the moisture five or six years. The other division is more 

 spacious, and extends much farther. The caverns which com- 

 pose it are wider and loftier, but not so beautifully adorned 

 as in the other. The enormous clustered columns of stalac- 

 tite that seem to support the everlasting roof from which they 

 have only originated, often tower to such a height, that the 

 lights do not enable you to discover their summit ; but, though 

 infinitely majestic, they are rougher, darker, and more shape- 

 less than in the smaller suite. The farther you advance, the 

 elevations become bolder, the columns more massive, and the 

 forms more diversified, till after running about six miles into 

 the earth, this scene of wonderment terminates with the ele- 

 ment with which it began, water. A small subterraneous 

 lake, deep, clear, cold, and dead-still, prevents all farther pro- 

 gress. It has not been passed; it would therefore be too 

 much to say that nothing lies beyond. 



Throughout these caverns, not a sound is heard, except 

 the occasional plashing of the dew-drop from a half-formed 

 pillar. No living thing, no trace of vegetation enlivens the 

 cold rock, or the pale freezing stalactites. A solitary bat, 

 fast asleep, on a brittle white pinnacle, was the only inhabi- 

 tant of this gorgeous palace. When I took him from his 

 resting-place, he uttered a chirping plaintive sound, as if mur- 

 muring that our lights had disturbed his repose, or that hu- 

 man feet should intrude into the dark and silent sanctuary of 

 his race. When replaced on his pinnacle, he folded up his 

 wings, ceased to chirp and murmur, and, in a moment, was as 

 sound asleep as ever. 



Yet these abodes are not always so still and deserted. 

 About the middle of the more extensive of the two ranges, 

 the passage which, though not low, has for a while been rough 



