Page:The Galaxy, Volume 5.djvu/786

756 relief, not merely to impatience, when the distant footsteps of his returning comrades fell upon his expectant ears.

The place which checked the progress of the professor is called "the Creeping Passage." James and the doctor found nothing beyond it of especial interest. The cave expands to its usual dimensions after a few hundred feet, and divides into two branches, which unite again at the distance of a mile. The space enclosed between them it called "the Continent." At the farther extremity, in a recess of the wall, they observed a beautiful cluster of small stalactites and stalagmites, forming a miniature pavilion with fluted columns and a canopy, almost as regular and perfect as though made by art. They named it "Titania's Throne."

Our travellers had now been eight hours under ground, and had walked, crept, and climbed, about eighteen miles. As they returned toward the entrance, James asked the professor how he supposed the cave was formed.

The professor pointed to the sides of the passage near the floor, which are worn into grooves and channels like the rocks which form the banks of a rapid stream. "These loose stones in the bottom of the cave are all water-worn," he added. "If you find one which is not, it is one which has fallen since the cave became dry. The cave is the ancient bed of a subterranean water-course, now dried up or diverted into other channels—perhaps, the same which issues in the spring which we saw yesterday."

On emerging from the cave, the travellers looked at each other with astonishment and alarm. Their faces were white and ghastly, and each one thought the others must be much exhausted or seriously ill. The guide laughed at their exclamations, and said that the alarming paleness was only in appearance, caused by the sudden change from the darkness of the cave to the full glare of the sun. Their sense of smell had also become so acute by remaining so long in the perfectly inodorous air, that the odor of many trees and other plants, which usually is not discernible, was plainly distinguished.

The entire extent of the cave is a little less than twenty miles, not in one continuous passage, but including the several branches. The measurements given by the guides are not based on mere estimates, but were taken by a party of gentlemen from Cincinnati some years since, in which were two competent engineers, by whom the entire cave was accurately surveyed and measured. A map of their survey now hangs in the parlor of the hotel. The cave is nearly double the extent of the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, and far excels it in variety and interest. offset-2em