he end of the rope, my son sprang astride and was
lowered to the bottom, just one hundred feet. He reported back 'All
right.' On the return of the rope I took my position on the stick
and was soon dangling in mid air. The sensation was strange and
exhilarating. Looking up I could only see the small opening I came
through, and a straggling stream of light poured down that, but on
all sides profound darkness reigned supreme. A spark-like light my
son lit, reminded me of the lost Pleiad. About twenty-five or
thirty feet from the top I caught sight of a scene that made me
call on the men at the windlass to stop.

"This caused them to think something was going wrong and one called
out to know what was the matter: I heard him say 'He is weakening.'
I assured them everything was right only I wanted to take a view;
so they stopped. Off at a distance of perhaps twenty-five feet was
an opening about ten feet or more wide and twelve feet high. The
light from the opening struck it fairly, owing to the position of
the sun at the time. Through this opening I saw into another room,
large and magnificent. It brought to mind the White City. It was
snowy white, and thickly studded with stalactites and stalagmites
of immense size and in great numbers; some looking like spires of
numerous churches, and many connected as with a lattice-work about
the bottom. For a short time I gazed on that lovely scene, and
examined the chances to reach it, but a great gulf intervened that
we had no means of spanning, and I called to the men to lower me
down. Approaching the bottom one of the walls trended in towards me
and I stepped upon solid ground close to the wall, which half way
up seemed fifty feet away. The opening above now looked like a
small pale moon, and the next man who came dangling down to join us
looked no bigger than a toy soldier. Gradually our eyes became
accustomed to the twilight, and by the time our party was increased
to six men, I could see quite distinctly.

"The room runs directly into the mountain and is about ninety feet
high, and where we landed it proved to be twenty feet wide. It
extended in both directions, but much the farthest towards the
right hand. The outer room is encrusted in fine white water
formations. It forms a Gothic ceiling from which hang