144 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



ingly suspended, like Mahomet's coffin, keeping his 

 dark and weary vigils, waiting to gloat over the death 

 of some daring pale-face, crushed by the Falling K< >rk 

 below." Upon the other tigure, which resembles the 

 facial characters sometimes seen in Punch and Judy 

 shows, the fanciful name of "Betsy and I are Out" 

 has been bestowed. 



Banditti Hall is the closing portion of the common 

 entry to both the Old and New caves. At its farther 

 end the opening leading to the Old Cave is seen on 

 the left, some twenty feet above the level of the floor, 

 while about the same distance below, on our right, 

 opens the doorway into "Fat Man's Misery," and the 

 New Cave beyond. 



Climbing a steep ascent into the Old Cave, we found 

 ourselves at first in a passage-way ten feet wide and 

 seven feet high, with the floor of ochery clay a num- 

 ber of feet thick, the walls of oolitic limestone, and 

 the roof with here and there the more soluble portions 

 dissolved until it resembles a coarse-celled honeycomb 

 in appearance. Passing onward beneath " Pigmy 

 Dome," we entered the "Continued Arch," a long 

 passage-way, eight feet in height, ten feet wide, and 

 with an occasional crystal of selenite glistening on the 

 dry and dusty floor. From this we passed into the 

 "Canopy," a circular room, twenty feet in diameter 

 and ten feet high, with a smooth white roof. This is 

 succeeded by another long, low passage, where stoop- 

 ing is necessary for some distance, and then we passed 

 down through a narrow passage into "Lucifer's 

 Gorge," forty feet deep, with precipitous, jagged rocks 

 overhanging the sides. Up we climbed once more. 



