200 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. vm. 



connected by narrow, and at times difficult, passages. Few 

 of these chambers were of equal dimensions with the first, 

 but most of them were lined and ornamented with stalactite 

 formations of every imaginable shape, and in various stages of 

 crystallisation or decomposition. In some places buttresses 

 or pilasters, of most exquisite brightness and of elaborate 

 combinations of form, reached down the sides of the wall 

 from the roof to the floor. In others single pillars, or clusters 

 of small pillars, like those in the interior of a cathedral, rose 

 from the floor and spread out broader at the top, as if from 

 thence arches were to spring. Sometimes the stalagmites 

 seemed like glassy tapering cones fixed in the floor, and 

 reaching nearly to the roof. The floors of the rooms and 

 passages were uneven and slippery, generally covered with a 

 whitish substance like slightly sullied snow. But it would 

 have required, as indeed it would have amply repaid, a much 

 longer time than I could then command to examine or note 

 either the exact dimensions of the place, or the curious and 

 strange crystallisations which crowded around me. As it was, 

 I sometimes found myself left alone by my companions, in 

 consequence of having lingered to look on the inconceivably 

 striking and attractive forms which surrounded, and ceiled, 

 and floored some exquisite little grotto connected by a chasm 

 or other aperture, with the main gallery or passage, like one 

 of the beautiful little marble chapels which are seen in the 

 side of some of the splendid churches of Italy. 



The silent and ceaseless process by which the interiors of 

 these sublime temples of nature had been thus decorated and 

 furnished was apparent, and formed not the least interesting 

 amongst the many wonders of the place. A circle of crystals, 

 on a part of the roof where drops of water hung suspended, 

 marked in several places the commencement of one of those 

 singular formations. At other places a broad based cone de- 

 scended several feet, while the moisture dripping from its 



