believed the
cave to be the abode of Satan. The entrance is about half-way up a
hill, and about fifty feet in height, and about the same in breadth.
Squeezing their way through a narrow passage between two rocks, probably
the remains of Genghis Khan's fatal wall, they came to a drop of about
sixteen feet. Down this, by means of ropes, they were lowered by two
men, who remained to haul them up again. Passing through a narrow
tunnel, over a floor of smooth ice, they reached a vast hall, damp and
dripping, the light of their torches not enabling them to form any idea
of its size. Here they discovered hundreds of skeletons, the victims of
Genghis Khan's cruelty. Among them was one, evidently the skeleton of a
mother, holding in its long arms the skeletons of two infants. The
bodies of others had been preserved, and lay as they had fallen,
shrivelled into mummies. After leaving this vast sepulchre, they
proceeded through several low arches with smaller caverns, until they
reached an enormous hall, in the centre of which was a prodigious mass
of clear ice, in the form of a bee-hive, its dome-shaped top just
touching the long icicles which depended from the jagged roof.

A small opening led into the centre of this wonderful ice-heap, which
was divided into several compartments, presenting numerous fantastic
forms. In some the glittering icicles hung like curtains from the roof,
in others the whole compartment was as smooth as glass. The prismatic
colours which presented themselves as the torches flashed on the surface
of the ice were beautifully brilliant.

On every side they were surrounded by solid ice, and, scarcely able to
keep their feet, they slid noiselessly over the glittering surface of
the mysterious hall.

The icicles having reached the floor of one of the largest of the
compartments, had the appearance of pillars supporting the roof.

In Italy and the South of France there are caverns with some distant
aperture through which the wind enters, and being cooled in its
subterraneous passage, sends forth a cold blast at the other end, such
as the Aeolian Cavern, near Terni. It has been utilised by the
proprietors of some of the neighbouring villages, who have conducted the
cold air to their houses by means of leaden pipes, which on sultry
summer days convey a pleasant coolness through plaster-of-paris masks,
with wide distended mouths, fixed in the walls of the rooms.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

COPPER MINES.