in the cave
entrance, we lighted candles and sat down to wait for our eyes to
adjust themselves to the changed condition, from brilliant sunlight to
absolute darkness, broken only by the feeble strength of three candles.
It was noticeable that in the moist atmosphere of the Missouri caves,
three candles were not more than equal to one in the dry caves of South
Dakota.

Very soon we were able to continue the inspection of our surroundings,
and the large passage we were in would more properly be called a long
chamber, of irregular width but averaging about thirty feet. This ends
abruptly nearly five hundred feet from the entrance, but a small passage
scarcely more than six feet high runs off at right angles, and into this
we turn. It is not quite so nearly dry as the outer chamber, and at a
distance of less than one hundred feet we suddenly come to the end of
dry land at an elbow of the silently flowing river whose channel we had
almost stepped into. The ceiling dipped so we were not able to stand
straight, and the guide said he had never gone farther; but to his
surprise here was a light boat which I am ready to admit he displayed no
eagerness to appropriate to his own use, and swimming about it, close to
shore, were numerous small, eyeless fish, pure white and perfectly
fearless; the first I had ever seen, and little beauties.

By burning magnesium ribbon we saw that the passage before us was a low
arch and occupied from wall to wall by water, the direction of the flow
being into another of somewhat greater size at right angles to that by
which we had come, and at the mouth of this lay the boat. The distance
we could see in either direction was of tantalizing shortness, and the
boat was provided with no means of guidance or control, save an
abundance of slender twine which secured it to a log of drift from the
outside; so I decided to leave my companions in charge of the main coil
of twine while I went on an excursion alone, there being not much
evident cause for apprehension as no living cow could ever have made the
trip to this favored spot.

Although the water looked perfectly placid, the boat drifted with
surprising speed, so that the two scared faces peering after me were
soon lost sight of. The channel was nowhere more than six feet wide,
consequently as the boat inclined to drive against either wall I was
able with care to keep it off the rocks with my hands, and in the same
way guide it around the sharp turns