THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



35 



We entered the cave, the mouth of 

 which is in a little hollow behind the hotel, 

 and after proceeding about two hundred 

 yards found ourselves in a very large 

 chamber called the Rotunda. Here two 

 avenues lead off, one to the right, the other 

 to the left. The left-hand turn is taken 

 by all parties making either the " long " or 

 the "short" route, and to the Rotunda 

 they must always return on the way out. 

 The passage to the right is an immense 



As I was anxious to begin at once my 

 acquaintance with subterranean life I de- 

 cided to remain behind, leaving the guide 

 and his party to continue their route, and 

 arranging to meet them here in the Rotunda 

 on their return at eleven o'clock. I watched 

 their fading lights and listened to the 

 rapidly diminishing sound of their foot- 

 steps as they receded down the long pas- 

 sage, then turned into Audubon Avenue, 

 and following previous instructions, found 



[Fig. 9-] 



Phrixis longipes : a, claw of anterior tarsus ; i, claws of posterior tarsi ; c, spider enlarged ten times (after Hubbard). 



gallery, like a great tunnel, eighty feet 

 wide and forty feet high, and about three 

 miles long. It is called Audubon Avenue, 

 and has but few branch galleries, none of 

 them very long. The first side passage 

 that leaves Audubon Avenue is a mile long, 

 and opens at its end into the top of Mam- 

 moth Dome. So one may follow this 

 passage to eternity, by stepping from the 

 top to the bottom of Mammoth Dome, a 

 distance of two hundred and fifty feet. 



and traversed to its end the side passage 

 leading to the jump-off into the dome. 

 The gallery was however very dry, and 

 after careful search, finding no insects, I 

 lost no time in returning to the Rotunda. 

 This is also a dry chamber, but in a few 

 places the walls are slightly moist, and 

 there are ledges upon which the droppings 

 of bats are collected. I found at last on 

 one such moist shelf a little pile of fresh 

 bats' dung, and on disturbing it, three or 



