546 
CAVES OF KEREFTO. 
four or five other directions. Many seemed to have been sub¬ 
terraneous channels, or hollow places in the mountain’s original 
fabric; but all had been perfected into commodious ways, and 
spacious or obscurely close apartments, according to the views of 
those who planned these darkling abodes. Nothing can be 
more easily discerned, even on the bosom of the most rugged 
cliff, than the point where nature has left the work, and man 
begins with his invading tools. Parts about were broken away, 
to render the sides more even, or the roof more equally lofty, and 
the flooring levelled by the same means; but every where, in 
chambers or avenues, the walls were excavated at intervals for 
lamps, and the whole thickly encrusted with the smoke of their 
now extinguished flames. In two or three places, we opened into 
vestibule chambers, whence passages diverged in various direc¬ 
tions. From one of these sort of corridors, we entered a door¬ 
way to the right, and proceeded thence along a passage for more 
than three hundred yards, in pursuit of a considerable apartment 
with a large quadrangular stone in the midst of it; which, our con¬ 
ductor had told us, was somewhere in that direction, but our 
search proved unsuccessful; and he did not seem inclined to com¬ 
ply with our wishes, to renew the attempt down any other of the 
very distant leading paths. Indeed, at every step of our advance, 
after quitting the great cavern, he seemed to increase in wariness ; 
being apprehensive, he said, that we should either lose our way, 
or come suddenly on some den of the wild animals of the moun¬ 
tain, with which these recesses were amply peopled. The sort of 
smells which assailed us in passing some of the avenues, bore suf¬ 
ficient evidence to the truth of the latter statement; but the other 
cause of alarm not appearing quite so evident, I could not be 
persuaded to turn back. We then pressed on, and after some 
