34 
The Irish Nairn alisi. 
February, 
furthest point yet reached. This was one of the principal 
channels by which the ancient waters descended, from 
openings now unknown and inaccessible, to the labyrinth of 
forsaken waterways we had left behind. Our guide, who 
astonished us by the rapidity with which he got over difficult 
ground, was unable to make ver3^ speedy progress here. The 
ramifications are extremely hard to unravel, and he had only 
been in this part twice before, in 1895 with M. Martel, and 
twenty-five years earlier^ as a boy, with his father. Even- 
tually, after many wanderings, we reached Brogden's Cave," 
where hitherto all direct progress had stopped. On the south 
side (not on the north as shown in the chart) is the " Chapel," 
which M. Martel rightly described as the most beautiful thing 
in the whole cavern. It is an arched recess, canopied with 
stalagmite of the purest and most delicate lustre. 
Whilst my companion rested, I joined the guide, who was 
hunting for the passage to a cave where his father had taken 
him thirty-five years ago. We discovered the opening at last, 
and after wriggling and squirming round innumerable twists 
and corners, we dropped over a low cliff, beyond which a short 
wriggle brought us into a long and lofty cave, magnificently 
walled and pillared with snowy calcite. Floor, walls and 
roof were a spotless white, wrought into intricate reliefs and 
embroideries by the flow of the freakish stalagmite. The 
guide stated that this was *' Cust's Cave," and the one beyond, 
where our progress stopped, he called the Demon's Cave." 
M. Martel's chart shows a " Cust's Cave" of a totally different 
shape and size, near the " River" ; and, as there is no mention 
extant of any cave be3^ond Brogden's, I take it that this, the 
real Cust's, was unknown to him. Unfortunately, I had 
followed the guide without bringing the plan or a compass, 
unaware that we were going so far from the known parts of the 
cavern ; and now, to my disgust, the guide was unable to find 
the way back, and for rr-ore than half an-hour we were com- 
pletely lost. The ball of string, carried for emergencies like 
this, had also been left in the rucksack, so that we had a 
pretty bad time before we got back to our puzzled comrade. 
It is impossible through these oversights to give more than 
an approximate idea of the lie of this cave, which is some- 
where to the south-east of Brogden's, and at a distance of 
several hundred feet. 
