304 ' THE ATLANTIC. [cHap. Iv. 
previous weather. The three drops were still falling, and add- 
ing silently to their crust. We could not determine that the 
bulk of the new accumulation was perceptibly greater than 
when it was measured by Sir Alexander Milne. We were 
very anxious to carry away with us a permanent record of the 
present condition of the stump of the stalagmite, and we twice 
tried to photograph it with the magnesium light. On the first 
occasion the picture came out fairly, but, most unfortunately, in 
the darkness and the difficulty of conducting such operations 
it was spoiled. When we tried it again, there was something 
wrong with the bath, and it was a complete failure. 
It then occurred to us that it might be possible to take an- 
other slice from the column, showing the amount of reparation 
during half a century, as an accessory and complement to the 
Edinburgh specimen. Our time was too short to allow us to 
do this ourselves, but Captain Aplin most kindly undertook to 
make the attempt after our departure, and I have just heard 
that he succeeded in his difficult task. The roof of the cave 
at the point whence the stalagmite was removed is at a height 
of about fifteen feet, and facing the stump there are two ma- 
jestic columns uniting the roof and the floor, one of them 
upward of sixty feet in circumference. They are beautifully 
fluted and fretted with stalactite, and shone out with a pure 
white-frosted surface in the magnesium light. 
Sending the galley on before us, we walked along the isth- 
mus which forms the western boundary of Harrington Sound 
to Painter’s Vale, where there was a small detachment of engi- 
neers living under canvas, and another cave. 
I think the Painter’s Vale cave is the prettiest of the whole. 
The opening is not very large. It is an arch over a great mass 
of débris, forming a steep slope into the cave, as if part of the 
roof of the vault had suddenly fallen in. At the foot of the . 
bank of débris, one can barely see in the dim light the deep, 
clear water lying perfectly still and reflecting the roof and mar- 
