352 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



marvels told us of this place, that it was impossible 

 to enter after twelve o'clock. This hour was 

 already past; we had not made the preparations 

 which were said to be necessary, and, without 

 knowing how far we should be able to continue, we 

 followed our guides, other Indians coming after us 

 with coils of rope. 



The entrance was about three feet high and four 

 or five wide. It was so low that we were obliged 

 to crawl on our hands and feet, and descended at 

 an angle of about fifteen degrees in a northerly di- 

 rection. The wind, collecting in the recesses of the 

 cave, rushed through this passage with such force 

 that we could scarcely breathe ; and as we all had 

 in us the seeds of fever and ague, we very much 

 doubted the propriety of going on, but curiosity was 

 stronger than discretion, and we proceeded. In the 

 floor of the passage was a single track, worn two or 

 three inches deep by long-continued treading of 

 feet, and the roof was incrusted with a coat of smoke 

 from the flaring torches. The labour of crawUng 

 through this passage with the body bent, and against 

 the rush of cold air, made a rather severe beginning, 

 and, probably, if we had undertaken the enterprise 

 alone we should have turned back. 



At the distance of a hundred and fifty or two 

 hundred feet the passage enlarged to an irregular 

 cavern, forty or fifty feet wide and ten or fifteen 

 high. We no longer felt the rush of cold wind, and 

 the temperature was sensibly warmer. The sides 



