THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 165 
three Bengal-lights, which he had saved for the 
occasion. It needed a stronger illumination 
than our lamps could afford to enable me _ to 
comprehend the stupendous dimensions of this 
grandest of underground chambers. I will give 
the figures, but they convey only a faint idea 
of its colossal character: length, eight hundred 
feet; breadth, three hundred feet; height, one 
hundred and twenty feet; area, between four 
and five acres. Martin’s picture of Satan’s Coun- 
cil-Hall in Pandemonium would hardly seem ex- 
ageerated if offered as a representation of the 
Chief City, so far and vanishing is the per- 
spective of its extremities, so tremendous the 
span of its gigantic dome. 
“YT sat upon the summit of the hill until the 
last fires had burned out, and the hall became 
even more vast and awful in the waning light of 
our lamps. Then taking a last look backward 
through the arch of the avenue,—to my mind the 
most impressive view,—we returned to the Hall 
of the Cascades. Stephen proposed showing me 
the Fairy Grotto, which was not far off; and to 
accomplish that end I performed a grievous 
amount of stooping and crawling in the Solitary 
Cave. The Grotto, which is a delicate stalactite 
chamber, resembling a Gothic oratory, was very 
