200 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. VIII. 
connected by narrow, and at times difficult, passages. Few 
uf these chambers were of equal dimensions with the first, 
but most of them were lined and ornamented with stalactite 
formations of every imaginable shape, and in various stages of 
crystallisation or decomposition. In some places buttresses 
or pilasters, of most exquisite brightness and of elaborate 
combinations of form, reached down the sides of the wall 
from the roof to the floor. In others single pillars, or clusters 
of small pillars, like those in the interior of a cathedral, rose 
from the floor and spread out broader at the top, as if from 
thence arches were to spring. Sometimes the stalagmites 
seemed like glassy tapering cones fixed in the floor, and 
reaching nearly to the roof. The floors of the rooms and 
passages were uneven and slippery, generally covered with a 
whitish substance like slightly sullied snow. But it would 
have required, as indeed it would have amply repaid, a much 
longer time than I could then command to examine or note 
either the exact dimensions of the place, or the curious and 
strange crystallisations which crowded around me. As it was, 
I sometimes found myself left alone by my companions, in 
consequence of having lingered to look on the inconceivably 
striking and attractive forms which surrounded, and ceiled, 
and floored some exquisite little grotto connected by a chasm 
or other aperture, with the main gallery or passage, like one 
of the beautiful little marble chapels which are seen in the 
side of some of the splendid churches of Italy. 
The silent and ceaseless process by which the interiors of 
these sublime temples of nature had been thus decorated and 
furnished was apparent, and formed not the least interesting 
amongst the many wonders of the place. A circle of crystals, 
on a part of the roof where drops of water hung suspended, 
marked in several places the commencement of one of those 
singular formations. At other places a broad based cone de¬ 
scended several feet, while the moisture dripping from its 
