arted on a land journey of some miles. As my father was
led along, although he could see nothing, he knew by the rush of air,
and the way they went up and down hill, that they were in a very broken
country.

"`Here is the place,' said Apetak. `Now very soon I will uncover your
eyes, but before I do it you must follow me into the earth.'

"Then he led my father into what seemed to be an opening on the side of
a great hill or mountain, and, entering first in, he told my father to
walk close behind him and keep his hand on him so that he would not be
lost. Sometimes the opening was so low that they had to stoop down, and
in other places they had to squeeze through between the rocks. After a
time they stopped.

"`Now,' said Apetak, `I will take off the covering from your face, but
you will see nothing till I make a light.'

"So it was just as Apetak said. When the covering was removed from the
eyes so dense was the darkness that my father saw no better than he did
with it on.

"However, that great bundle on Apetak's back was composed of torches for
this place. And so when the Indian struck a light with his flint and
steel, and lit up some of these torches, they both could see very well.
At first sight what my father saw was a great cave, like a large church
or cathedral, here in the hill or mountain. Strangely broken was it in
places, and great columns, like stalactites, were very numerous. There
were others that looked like filigree work.

"Said Apetak: `Look at these great things that look like old lead
bullets.'

"Said my father: `Sure enough, as my eyes became accustomed to the
place, lit up by these flaming torches, I discovered that a great deal
that I thought was native rock was really metal. At first I thought it
was lead, as so long exposed there it looked like old lead pipes. But
when I tried to scrape it with my knife I found it was too hard. Then
Apetak used his axe, and managed to cut down a little for me, and to
scrape or hack it in some other places, and, lo, it was pure silver.

"`At this discovery,' said my father, `I was amazed, for here, visible
to the eye, were thousands of pounds of silver.'

"We both continued to look around and examine it until we had burnt all
but the last torch. It seemed in some places as though the softer rocks
had gradually dissolved and left the silver here just as we found it.
In other parts it looked as though in some remote period intense fires
had melt