108 GLEANINGS FEOM NATURE. 



suspended from the bottom of the upper floor into the 

 passage-way beneath. 



The left hand passage comprises the greater portion 

 of the cave. It varies in height from four to twenty 

 feet, averaging about eight. But little stooping or 

 crawling is necessary, but much climbing over rough 

 stones and up and down steep, rugged slopes has to be 

 done, the floor in most places being covered with great 

 masses of fallen rock. Two hundred and forty feet 

 from the entrance a crevice leads off through the, 

 walls on the right. By crawling along a ledge of 

 projecting stone for about 100 feet, we reached the 

 edge of an opening large enough to admit the body 

 of a man, and by the aid of a sapling, bearing numer- 

 ous short prongs or remains of limbs, which we found 

 in place, we descended twenty-eight feet into a lower 

 passage, about sixty feet long and ten feet wide. Here 

 we found some shallow pools of water, but no living 

 forms, and nothing in the way of scenery to reward us 

 for the labor of getting down and up. 



In numerous places the floor of the main passage 

 has a deep cleft near its center or on one side, varying 

 in depth from eight to twenty feet, and in width from 

 a few inches to three feet and more. In several other 

 places, notably 340 feet from the entrance, are open- 

 ings or deep pit-holes, similar to those already men- 

 tioned, leading down into lower passages,' the latter, 

 however, of small extent. The main passage begins 

 to narrow about 575 feet from the entrance, and 100 

 feet farther on is but three feet wide. At this point 

 a branch turns to the left and leads downward into a 

 lower room of small size. A short distance beyond 



