snake a yard long coiled up
on a section of rotten wood. It proves to be a copperhead, the most
quarrelsome and vicious snake in this country; but his nature is
changed so that he makes no effort to fight and is killed with a
blow, and is sent to be hoisted up that we may examine him in
daylight. No others were found, and probably he had fallen in at
the opening, and spent a long, weary time in expiation of his
upper-earth crimes.

"Examining the lake we find it to be about forty feet wide and the
same long, and it fills the room from wall to wall. We cannot pass
it so must either stop or wade through. We decide to wade, and on
measuring the water find it only two or three feet deep, with a
soft clay bottom, and in many places islands of stalagmite rise
above the surface.

"On the sides of the lake there are formations in the shape of
sofas and lounges, and they appear to be cushioned, but the
cushions are found to be hard, solid rock. As the lights advance
across the lake new wonders are revealed. Curtains and draperies
hanging from the top almost touch the water and entirely cut off
the view beyond. Passing under a curtain at one of the highest
places, we emerge from the lake, and once more on dry land, advance
up a slope. Here the water formations have taken human shapes of
all sizes and several colors now appear and help to present a chaos
of beauty.

"Two hundred feet more and the chamber ends in a vast waterfall,
but the water has turned to stone. Above the waterfall is an
opening, but it is twenty-five feet up a smooth wall and we have no
ladder. The journey was at an end. Tired, wet and muddy, we started
on our return trip; recrossed the dark lake, and retraced our steps
to the place under the opening without realizing that we had spent
six hours under ground. While the other members of the party, and
the specimens, were being raised to the surface, the writer sought
to learn the flora and fauna of this new region. The flora is
blank. Even the white mold so common in many caves is absent; and
no fungus grows on the poles, bark and rotten wood that have at
some past time been cast in.

"In animal life the range is greater. I have mentioned the
ever-present bats, and dozens of them were seen. There were also
small, white e