156 Literary and Philosophical Society. 



and alarm to the inhabitants above. For, what is very 

 remarkable, notwithstanding the extent of this quarry, and 

 the apparent danger many parts of the city are in from it, 

 few, even of those who have constantly resided in Paris, 

 are at all acquainted with it, and on my mentioning the 

 expedition I was going to undertake to several of my 

 Parisian friends, they ridiculed me upon it, and told me it 

 was impossible there could be any such place. 



' About nine o'clock in the morning we assembled to the 

 number of forty, and, with each a wax candle in his hand, 

 precisely at ten o'clock descended by steps to the depth 

 of three hundred and sixty feet perpendicular. We had 

 likewise a numbers of guides, with torches, which we found 

 very useful ; but, even with these assistants, we were 

 several times under the necessity of halting, to examine 

 the plans the inspectors keep of these quarries, that we 

 might direct our course in the right road. I was disap- 

 pointed in not being able to obtain one of these plans, 

 which would have given the clearest idea of this most 

 extraordinary place. At the entrance, the path is narrow 

 for a considerable way ; but soon we entered large and 

 spacious streets, all marked with names, the same as in the 

 city ; different advertisements and bills were found, as we 

 proceeded, pasted on the walls, so that it had every 

 appearance of a large town, swallowed up in the earth. 



' The general height of the roof is about nine or ten 

 feet ; but in some parts not less than thirty, and even 

 forty. In many places, there is a liquor continually 

 dropping from it, which congeals immediately, and forms 

 a species of transparent stone, but not so fine and clear 

 as rock crystal. As we continued our peregrination, we 

 thought ourselves in no small danger from the roof, which 



