om the interior, but so
low that we did not at first remark them, almost drowned as they were by
the noise of the rushing waters. From the immense size of the entrance,
and the direct course the cavern took into the interior of the mountain,
daylight penetrated for a great distance, and we were accordingly able
to proceed for upwards of four hundred feet before we found it
diminishing to any extent. As we advanced, the sounds we had at first
heard so indistinctly increased; and Kanimapo told us that they were
produced by birds, which had taken up their abode in the cavern in
thousands. The shrill and piercing cries of these denizens of the
cavern, striking on the vaulted rock, were repeated by the subterranean
echoes till they created such a wild din as is difficult to describe.
Well might an ignorant native, entering for the first time, have
supposed that they were the shrieks of departed souls.

The farther we went, the louder and more horrible was the noise.
Entering a region of darkness, we were at length compelled to light our
torches; when, holding them up, we could see birds flitting about in all
directions, their long nests fixed in the roof and sides of the cavern.

We walked on slowly and cautiously, to avoid the risk of falling into
any hollow which might exist in the ground; but generally it was
tolerably smooth and level, covered everywhere with herbage of a pale
hue,--evidently, as the doctor observed, the produce of seeds dropped by
the birds.

Though not so wide as at the entrance, the magnificence of the cavern
was greatly increased by the countless stalactites which hung from the
roof; some reaching to the ground, and forming pillars with arches of
the most delicate tracery, which often shone brilliantly as the light of
our torches fell on them. The farther we got, the more fantastic were
the forms they assumed,--till, with a little aid from the imagination,
we might have fancied ourselves in some wonderful temple of an Eastern
region. So numerous were the columns, we could with difficulty make our
way between them--sometimes having to descend into the bed of the river,
which was nowhere more than two feet deep, though from twenty to thirty
feet wide. All this time the shrieks of the birds sounded in our ears.
Occasionally, those near us were silent; and sometimes the noise around
us ceased for a few minutes, when we heard at a distance the plaintive
cries of the birds roosting in other ramific