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48 shrieking in the most horrible manner, and beating the ground with its unwounded wing, caused the snakes near to scatter in all directions, and woke the cave with a thousand echoes.

Its cries brought hundreds of its mates, who, after flying and shrieking around it for some time, finally fell upon it, and tearing it to pieces devoured it before my eyes.

I shuddered; perhaps my turn would come next.

But the horrors were not over; worse had still to come.

No sooner had the birds returned to roost on the crags and rocks, than, turning my eyes in another direction, I saw a light that seemed to be approaching.

At first it looked like a star, but, as it came nearer, it gradually assumed larger and larger proportions, until for a quarter of a mile the cavern was lighted up by its brilliancy.

At first my eyes were so blinded by its strength that I could see nothing.

When they became more used to it I able to comprehend in some degree what an enormous size the cavern I was in must be (allowing it to be a cavern). I was lying in a corner, and could see the two walls stretching away on each side for some hundreds of yards, and yet there seemed no end to them.