saw the figure, they too stepped
involuntarily backwards, and Howe, advancing, laid his hand on the form
before him, discovered it was stone--a petrified human body.

On examination, it proved to have been a man nearly nine feet high, of
extraordinary muscular proportions. He had evidently been slain here or
wounded elsewhere, and crawled in this cavern to die, for a javelin was
sticking in his side, which he had endeavoured to extricate, but died
in the act, as his hand was clenched around it. It proved to be made of
copper, a fact which they ascertained by scraping the corroded metal
away, leaving the pure copper beneath. They attempted to withdraw the
javelin, but could not move it. The body, in petrifying, had closed
around it like a vice--the hand holding it in a position slanting
downwards, as if in that direction he had attempted to draw it from the
wound. On examining the rubbish that Sidney had pulled off him, they
found a helmet, precisely similar to the one found by Edward and Anne
in the old fort, which was in a good state of preservation. Besides
these, there was a broken javelin--the two pieces looking as if, when
whole, it had been a formidable weapon. Scraping these relics away with
a quantity of other things, too much decayed to ascertain what they
originally were, they came to what they had supposed to be the floor,
but which they discovered to be a skin of some kind petrified also. It
did not have the appearance of a buffalo skin, for it had a soft,
silky, or furry appearance. In the other corner, there was a large pile
that looked as if something had been stowed away, but on its being
disturbed, a dry musty vapor filled the air, and the heap became a
shapeless mass--the original character of which they could not
ascertain. Time had claimed its own; and what once, perhaps, were
costly and beautiful fabrics, was now a pile of dust.

Descending the stone steps to the cavern, they found that the brilliant
light from the tripods dispelled the gloominess around them, and gave,
as far as the eye could reach, a lively appearance to the place.

The party were now quite hungry; after roasting and eating some of
their venison, they prepared to penetrate still further in search of an
outlet. At first they thought of leaving the lights burning, but on
prudent second thought, they concluded to extinguish them, that, in
case their enemies did discover the cave, they might not discover that
they had been there.