THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 61 
The entrance to the second Cave cannot be seen from above, it is 
therefore necessary to go down the steep bank some thirty feet to 
the edge of the water, when we find ourselves opposite the Caye’s 
entrance, it being across the creek. Here the water is only: about 
one foot deep, running over a bright sand, and the pool in front of 
the entrance is almost surrounded by beautiful ferns, some many feet 
high. Now we see the necessity of having on our old clothing. We 
walk through the creek into the Cave, and are once more on dry 
ground, but only for a few minutes. The entrance is some ten feet 
wide, and about as many high, gradually increasing to about thirty 
feet, and having proceeded about twenty or thirty yards, we light 
our candles, as it gets very dark. A little further on, the roof 
suddenly descends to about ten feet, and the floor dips correspond- 
ingly about three feet into the creek, which here appearing from 
under the wall to our left rushes away into a hole on our right, 
running right across the Cave over a rough, rocky bottom. We 
made through this some six or seven yards, where some of the ladies 
and one or two of the gentlemen of our party come to grief over the 
slippery stones, and the water being between two or three feet deep, 
they are consequently wet nearly to the neck. After this, the 
Caye’s roof suddenly rises to about fifty feet, and in one place opens 
right out on the hull side, where, far above us we can see a glimmer 
of sunshine, partly obscured by the fronds of atree fern. The floor 
of the cave here is white, and in some places sparkling slightly, (a 
small piece of which I have with me,) and it maintains this character 
in many parts of the cave, but where the creek runs it is either 
shingle or yellow sand. After this we enter an almost circular 
chamber with a dome-shaped roof, the floor for the most part being 
dry, but round the side the creek runs and in one part is very deep. 
Proceeding further, the roof is very irregular, now so high that it is 
lost in black darkness, and again so low that it is almost necessary 
to creep on your hands and knees. 
The stalactites, especially those over deep pools of water, and 
which cannot be touched are very beautiful, but the finest are high 
up and cannot be properly seen by the light of our candles. (One 
I have with me, but not very good.) After proceeding a little 
further on we meet the creek, again running straight down the cave 
and suddenly turning to the left disappears under the wall. We 
follow it up for 100 yards or so. At first we can walk upright, the 
water being up to our waists and intensely cold, but after 40 or 50 
yards it shallows and is only up to our knees, but as the roof 
suddenly lowers and is only about four feet high, we must creep 
along with our faces in some places only a few inches above the 
surface of the water, in our attempts to avoid which we frequently 
suddenly raise our heads only to lower them quickly, having ex- 
perienced that the roof is harder than our skulls, and here, and in 
