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entrance to the caverns. Around this the party gathered, and on 

 first inspection the dark shaft looked anything but inviting. 

 However Mr. NichoUs led the way down the perpendicular shaft, 

 against the side of which a ladder had been fixed, quickly followed 

 by Mr. McMurtrie, but the Secretary was ordered to go down in the 

 bucket ; so with one leg in and one leg out, in true miner fashion 

 (the latter used like the fender of a ship to keep the bucket from 

 banging against the side or hitching on the projecting rocks) 

 down went the third and last of those who were rash enough to 

 leave terra firma for the unknown regions beloAV, the rest being 

 content to wait above and hear the result. A descent of 55 feet 

 perpendicular landed the bucket and its occupant on ground again. 

 A tortuous drift more or less on the level in a north-west direction, 

 a very tight squeeze between two faces of rock, and the top of a 

 ten-runged ladder was reached, leading to a lower level. A quick 

 and sharp descent after tliis over blocks of Limestone which had 

 fallen from the roof and were more or less covered with stalagmite, 

 led down to the first cavern proper, a dome-shaped hollow with a 

 very fine boss of rock in the centre, coated thickly with stalag- 

 mite. The roof presented the appearance of having been gradually 

 hollowed out by swirls of water which at some former time eddied 

 round here. A narrow entrance on the right hand led away in 

 an easterly direction. Down this Mr. NichoUs disappeared on his 

 stomach, feet foremost, there being just space enough to wriggle 

 through, and the rest followed. After passing the throat of this 

 the passage became a little wider, and led into a small chamber in 

 wliich it was possible to stand upright. More wriggles through 

 more naiTow passages and another chamber was reached, and 

 finally a third, the last and largest of the thi-ee. It was evident 

 that this last cavern had been tested in several places for ore, and 

 there were traces in the floor of the passages that at some former 

 time excavation had been carried on here. The same rather 

 exhausting process was repeated on the backward journey to the 

 cavern with the fine boss, which might well be called the dome of 



