BalPs Cave. 



scribed as being very brilliant. The skelelcn of a fox (as it is 

 supposed) was subsecjuently found in this place ; it must have 

 fallen through the opening above and found its way here, where it 

 probably perished from hunger. Leaving this apartment, they pur- 

 sued the course of the stream for about twenty eight feet, through 

 an opening from eight to ten feet in width, when their progress was 

 checked by a considerable body of water, into which the brook emp- 

 tied. These adventurers were now compelled to return to the sur- 

 face. , 



In October, the investigation was renewed by Mr. Gebhard, Dr. 

 Foster and INIr. Bonny, who had prepared a boat to navigate the 

 water which had checked the progress of the first expedition. Fix- 

 ing a light upon the prow, they commenced their voyage by.passing 

 through an arched passage in the rock so low as not to admit of their 

 standing erect in the- boat. Having proceeded about fifty feet in a 

 southerly direction, they altered their course to the left around an 

 angle in the rocky passage, and fi»und themselves in water about 

 thirty feet in depth, and so limpid that the smallest object might be 

 seen at the bottom. The course of the water was varied by the pro- 

 jections of the passage, which gradually expanded to twenty feet in 

 width, being of a height sometimes no^ discoverable, and at others 

 only sufficient to enable them to pursue their way. They thus pro- 

 ceeded about three hundred feet, when they arrived at a rugged 

 shelving ascent, on the right shore of the lake, and beneath which its 

 waters disappeared. Leaving the boat, they landed upon this slo- 

 ping ascent, and advancing twenty feet, they entered an aperture in 

 the rock resembling a door, when they found themselves within an 

 amphitheatre, perfectly regular and circular in form. Its diameter 

 is one hundred feet, and its height is supposed to be still greater. 

 The floor descends on all sides gradually to its centre, while the roof 

 is apparently horizontal. Its walls are described as rich in stalacti- 

 tic decorations. Great numbers of bats, disturbed by the intrusion' 

 of the adventurers, were seen flying about the cavern. 



Subsequent visits led to ihe discovery of five additional apart- 

 ments, communicating with the amphitheatre, all of which however 

 are small, and nope remarkable, excepting one in which the circula- 

 tion of currents of air or of water, or probably of both, produces sounds 

 like the iEolian harp. 



Returning to the lake, where the adventurers landed, it was noti- 

 ced that upon the north side of the perpendicular entrance to the 



Vol. XXVIi.— No. 2. 47 



