262 THE CRUISE OF TEE " CACHALOT." 



the light was faint, we could find our way about with 

 ease. We spoke in low tones, for the echoes were so 

 numerous and resonant that even a whisper gave back 

 from those massy walls in a series of recurring hisses, 

 as if a colony of snakes had been disturbed. 



We paddled on into the interior of this vast cave, 

 finding everywhere the walls rising sheer from the silent, 

 dark waters, not a ledge or a crevice where one might 

 gain foothold. Indeed, in some places there was a con- 

 siderable overhang from above, as if a great dome whose 

 top was invisible sprang from some level below the water. 

 We pushed ahead until tlie tiny semicircle of light 

 through which we had entered was only faintly visible ; 

 and then, finding there was nothing to be seen except 

 what we were already witnessing, unless we cared to go on 

 into the thick darkness, which extended apparently into 

 the bowels of the mountain, we turned and started to go 

 back. Do what we would, we could not venture to break 

 the solemn hush that surrounded us as if we were shut 

 within the dome of some vast cathedral in the twilight. 

 So we paddled noiselessly along for the exit, till suddenly 

 an awful, inexplicable roar set all our hearts thumping 

 fit to break our bosoms. Eeally, the sensation was most 

 painful, especially as we had not the faintest idea whence 

 the noise came or what had produced it. Again it filled 

 that immense cave with its thunderous reverberations ; 

 but this time all the sting was taken out of it, as we 

 caught sight of its author. A goodly bull-humpback had 

 found his way in after us, and the sound of his spout, 

 exaggerated a thousand times in the confinement of 

 that mighty cavern, had frightened us all so that we 

 nearly lost our breath. So far, so good ; but, unlike the 

 old nigger, though we were " doin' blame well," we 

 did not "let blame well alone." The next spout that 



