THE CAVE CULTURE OF MU^I ROOMS. 69 



secure and somewhat symmetrical, the arches being flat 

 at the top for six feet or so, and about twenty-five feet 

 high ; sometimes five feet higher. 



Presently we turn to the right, and a scene like a vast 

 subterranean rock temple presents itself. At one end 

 are several of us with lamps, admiring the young mush- 

 rooms budding all over the rows of beds, which, serpent- 

 like, are long and slim, and coil away into the darkness. 

 At about 150 feet distance there is a group of three men 



Fig. 23. Section following the line C, D, in Fig. 22. 



and a boy, each with a lamp, again dispelling the dark- 

 ness from the mushroom beds, and occupied in placing 

 small quantities of a sort of white clayey sand in the spots 

 whence gatherings have been made a few hours previously. 

 From both sides of this gloomy avenue the dark openings 

 of others depart at short intervals, and the floor of all is 

 covered with mushroom-beds, sometimes running along 

 the passages, sometimes across them. These beds are 



