A YOUNG NATURALIST. i6r 



We moved towards the entrance by an inclined passage, down 

 the slope of which we followed I'Encuerado. The distance between 

 the walls gradually increased, and soon we found ourselves in a 

 vast hall studded with stalactites ; in it Sumichrast arranged the 

 lighted torches. 



The Indian was not far wrong ; we might easily have fancied 

 ourselves in a Gothic cathedral. The wildest dreams could not 

 picture a stranger, more original, or more fantastic style of 

 architecture. Never did any painter of fairy scenes imagine 

 any effects more splendid. Hundreds of columns hung down 

 from the roof and reached the ground below. It was a really 

 wonderful assemblage of pointed arches, lace-work, branchery, and 

 gigantic flowers. Here and there were statues drawn by nature's 

 hand. Lucien particularly remarked a woman, covered with 

 a long veil, and stretching out over our heads an arm which a 

 sculptor's chisel could scarcely have rendered more life-like. 

 There were also shapeless mouths, monstrous heads, and animals, 

 appearing as if they had been petrified, in menacing attitudes. 

 The illusion was rendered more or less complete according to the 

 play of the light; and many a strange shape was but caught sight 

 of for a moment, to as rapidly vanish. 



Whilst we were moving about the cave, some long needles, 

 hanging from the roof, touched our heads. 



"They are stalactites," said I to the astonished Lucien. 

 "The rain-water, filtering through the mountain above, dis- 

 solves the calcareous matter it meets with, and produces, when 

 it evaporates, the beautiful concretions you are now looking 

 at." 



" Here is a needle coming up from the ground." 



" That is a stalagmite ; it increases upward, and not down- 

 ward like the stalactites, through which, besides, a tube passes. 

 Look up at that beautiful needle, with a drop of water ghttering 

 at the end of it. That liquid pearl, which has already deposited 

 on the stalactite a thin layer of lime, will fall down on the stal- 

 agmite, the top of which is rounded. After a time, the two needles 

 will join, adding another column to the grotto, which, in the 

 course of time, will become filled up with them." 



