AD IRON D AC. 99 



each. The guide and my incredulous com- 

 panions, who were watching me from the 

 opposite shore, seeing my luck, whipped out 

 their tackle in great haste and began casting 

 first at a respectable distance from me, then 

 all about me, but without a single catch. 

 My own efforts suddenly became fruitless, 

 also; but I had conquered the guide, and 

 thenceforth he treated me with the tone and 

 freedom of a comrade and equal. 



One afternoon we visited a cave, some two 

 miles down the stream, which had recently 

 been discovered. We squeezed and wrig- 

 gled through a big crack or cleft in the side 

 of the mountain, for about one hundred feet, 

 when we emerged into a large, dome-shaped 

 passage, the abode, during certain seasons 

 of the year, of innumerable bats, and at all 

 times of primeval darkness. There were 

 various other crannies and pit-holes opening 

 into it, some of which we explored. The 

 voice of running water was everywhere heard, 

 betraying the proximity of the little stream 

 by whose ceaseless corroding the cave and 

 its entrance had been worn. This streamlet 

 flowed out of the mouth of the cave and 

 came from a lake on the top of the moun- 

 tain ; this accounted for its warmth to the 

 hand, which surprised us all. 



