have been
explored, and it may possibly be of still greater extent. To give an
idea of the height of one of the chambers, we may add that the rocks
from above have fallen, and a hill has been formed one hundred feet in
elevation. Many of the halls are ornamented with the most magnificent
stalactites. One of them is appropriately called Martha's Vineyard, in
consequence of having its tops and sides covered with stalactites which
resemble bunches of grapes.

Several streams pass through the cavern, down the sides of which rush
numerous cataracts. Some of these streams, which are of considerable
depth and width, are inhabited by shoals of eyeless fish, the organs of
sight being superfluous in a region doomed to eternal night. The
atmosphere of this huge cave is peculiarly dry, and is supposed to be
extremely serviceable to persons afflicted with pulmonary complaints.

To visit any considerable portion of the cavern would occupy us at least
a couple of days. It is calculated there are no less than two hundred
and twenty-six avenues, forty-seven domes, numerous rivers, eight
cataracts, and twenty-three pits,--many of which are grand in the
extreme. Some of the rivers are navigated by boats, and, as may be
supposed, they have obtained appropriate names. Here we find the Dead
Sea and the River Styx. One of the streams disappears beneath the
ground, and then rises again in another portion of the cavern. But
after all, as naturalists, the little eyeless fish should chiefly claim
our attention.

OIL SPRINGS.

As coal was stored up for the use of man, formed in ages past from the
giant vegetation which then covered the face of the earth, so the
Creator has caused to be deposited in subterranean caverns large
quantities of valuable oil, which not only serves man for light, but is
useful to him for many other purposes.

Whether that oil was produced from animal or vegetable substances,
appears, even now, a matter of dispute. Some naturalists suppose that
vast numbers of oil-giving creatures had been assembled in the districts
in which these oil wells are now found, and the oil was pressed out of
them by a superincumbent weight of rock. Others assert that the same
result might be produced from a vast mass of oil-giving vegetation
having been crushed by a similar process. Be that as it may, in several
parts of the States, as well as in Canada, enormous pits exist full of
this curious oil. It is obtained by boring i