VISIT TO CONGO GROTTO. 
87 
reach the "Lange Kamer so off we started, 
and found what the boers had represented, to 
be most true — the ground being slippery, rug- 
ged, and difficult. Loud was the merriment at 
the numerous mishaps and tumbles ; and, as no 
one escaped, the laugh was mutual. We pro- 
ceeded through narrow passages and archways, 
up and down hill, over rocks, stones, sand, mud, 
and various other impediments; dropping a 
boer, here and there, to shew us the way back 
again. At length we arrived at a small de- 
scent, of about fourteen or fifteen feet, but very 
steep, and faced with a deep covering of soft 
loamy mud, down which it was impossible to 
walk. Throwing down a torch, therefore, to 
show us the bottom, we commenced our de- 
scent in rather a novel manner. Each man sit- 
ting down on his heels, and allowing himself 
to shoot down with a velocity almost equal to 
that attained on a Eussian ice-hill, forward we 
all went, one after the other, waving our torches 
over our heads, and each clearing away a for- 
midable portion of the mud. Could any of our 
friends on earth have seen us, as we reached the 
bottom, we should have been fit objects for their 
mirth ; for the mud, being of a bright orange 
colour, had imparted its hues to our dorsal ha- 
biliments, and most of us were without shoes 
or stockings — my own, for instance, having 
been left, long before, in the icicle-room. 
