A YOUNG NATURALIST. 



237 



ing one of our flambeaux. The branch crackled when 

 lighted, and, as we entered the cavern, five or six bats flew 

 out. I led Lucien by the hand, and very soon he was the 

 only one who could stand upright. Afterwards we entered 

 a vast chamber with a dome-shaped roof, which became 

 lower the farther we penetrated ; this was rather a disap- 

 pointment, as we had fancied there was something more to 

 be seen than a mere cave. A heap of reddish earth in one 

 corner attracted Sumichrast's attention, who examined it to 

 see if he could discover some fossil bones. Standing all to- 

 gether, we must have formed, by the smoky light of our 

 odoriferous torches, rather a fantastic-looking group. More 

 than half an hour elapsed without discovering any results 

 from our digging. L'Encuerado, who had tried to crawl in 

 between the roof and the ground, suddenly raised an excla- 

 mation ; he had, in fact, all but fallen into a deep pit. In an 

 instant I was laid down flat on my stomach and crawling to- 

 wards the Indian ; Lucien, owing to his size, was able to 

 creep on his hands and feet, and consequently soon got in 

 front of me. We could soon see down into the bottom of 

 the hole ; the burning fragments of our torches fell upon 

 a heap of stones at a depth of twelve or fifteen feet. L'En- 

 cuerado threw one of the torches into the chasm, and the 

 vague glimmer showed us a yawning opening on the left. 

 Delighted with this discovery, we now beat a retreat, defer- 

 ring a more thorough exploration until the next day. 



The night was dark, and during our absence the fire had 

 almost gone out. Just below us, a tree, the outline of 

 which we could scarcely distinguish, seemed covered with 

 animated sparks. Lucien opened his eyes very widely in- 

 deed, not being in the least able to understand this phenom- 

 enon, which was produced by thousands of elaterides, in- 

 sects which have on each side of the thorax a yellowish 

 spot which becomes luminous in the dark 0 



