THE MAMMOTH CAYE. Ill 



the rocks overhanging the aperture. There was 

 the first wonder, truly ! Clusters of grapes, 

 gleaming with blue and violet tints through the 

 water which trickled over them, hung from the 

 cliffs, while a stout vine, springing from the 

 base and climbing nearly to the top, seemed to 

 support them. Hundreds on hundreds of 

 bunches, clustering so thickly as to conceal the 

 leaves, hang, forever ripe and forever un- 

 plucked, in that marvelous vintage of the sub- 

 terranean world. For whose hand shall squeeze 

 the black, infernal wine from the grapes that 

 grow beyond Lethe ?" 



Dr. Wright tells us, in more sober language, 

 that the walls and ceiling of Martha's Vineyard 

 are studded with stalactite nodules of carbonate 

 of lime, colored with the black oxide of iron, 

 and in size and appearance resembling grapes. 

 A stalactite three inches in diameter, and ex- 

 tending from the floor to the ceiling, is termed 

 the Grape- Vine. 



A large stalagmite projects from the right 

 wall, a few inches from the floor, and is termed 

 the Battering-Ram. 



Elindo Avenue takes its origin directly over 

 the Pass of El Ghor. It presents no points of 

 special interest, except that the avenue leading 



