; On the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. 339 
hardly credit and cannot appreciate the sharpness with which the - 
vertical walls of this pit are moulded into architectural forms. 
tained the first view of its lofty ceiling. ‘The dome is of an ir- 
regular outline, in the main ovoidal, and from the ceiling hangs 
a great curtain of sculptured and vertically-grooved rock unsup- 
ported below, with the graceful outline and apparent lightness 
of actual drapery. A small stream of water falls from the top, 
which is broken into spray long before it reaches the bottom, and 
keeps the whole interior wet with its splashing. No gallery has 
been found which leads to the bottom of this most beautiful 
dome. We found other similar domes in which the pendant 
curtain just described had falleu,- and portions of it but little 
moved from their original position, seemed poised to a sec- 
ond fall. 
Of the mysterious rivers, with their many-tongued echoes— 
the mounds of mud and drift which they annually heap up,— 
the long miles of avenues which stretch away beyond them, rug- 
ged or gmooth,—and of the vaulted ceilings, crystal grottos and 
gypsum coronets which tempt the mineralogist to untiring ex- 
ploration, I must say nothing, for I have already gone too far in 
