higher, entering very few of the cells, but directing
their efforts towards reaching the central portion.

But failure attended every effort, and, hot and wearied out by what was
growing a monotonous task, Brace and the American readily acquiesced in
Sir Humphrey's proposal that they should now descend and join their
companions in the midday meal, and afterwards take the smaller boat, row
to the front of the temple, and try for away up from the river.

The task of descending and going back took considerably longer than they
anticipated, but at last they reached the lower terrace, where the rest
were awaiting their return, and over the meal they related their
experiences.

These were precisely similar to those of a couple of the men who had
explored a little on their own account in the other direction; but they
had been compelled to keep to the terrace where the fires had been lit.

"The place must have been built by the same kind of people who cut their
rock houses in some of the canons in Mexico," said Briscoe; "only those
are a degenerate set, and their cells or dwellings are very rough and
primitive. These people must have been greatly in advance. There: I
want to get to work again. There must be a way into that temple place
from the front."

"Well, let's try," said the captain. "It's a queer place if there is no
way in."

The afternoon was getting on when the exploring party entered the
smaller boat and had it rowed out into the stream a short distance from
the centre of the rock city, just facing the spot where the terraces
were grotesquely carved; and as they minutely examined the partly
natural, partly sculptured place, they were more than ever impressed by
the excellence of the workmanship.

It must have been the work of many, many years, perhaps of generations,
of the people who had lavished so much skilful toil on that centre,
which was about a couple of hundred feet in width, and rose up terrace
above terrace six or seven hundred feet before the plain uncarved rock
was reached, in whose clefts tree, shrub, and creeper grew abundantly
for a similar distance, while to right and left the cell-like windows
right up to the top of the canon finished off as before intimated,
something like the crenellations on the top of a Norman castle.

"It must have been magnificent at one time," said Sir Humphrey. "I wish
I were clever with my pencil, so as to be able to reproduce all this on
paper. These ornamen