es, and by the
fact that sticks thrown into the pit fell at the feet of the guides
below, and were brought out by them. The distance from the mouth of
the Cave to this pit, falls short of half a mile; yet to reach the
grand apartment immediately under it, requires a circuit to be made of
at least three miles. The illumination of that portion of the Great
Dome on the left, and of the hall on the top of the hill to the right,
as seen from the platform, was unquestionably one of the most
impressive spectacles we had witnessed; but to be seen to advantage,
another position ought to be taken by the spectator, and the dome with
its towering height, and the hall on the summit of the hill, with its
gigantic stalagmite columns, and ceiling two hundred feet high,
illuminated by the simultaneous ignition of a number of Bengal lights,
judiciously arranged. Such was the enthusiastic admiration of some
foreigners on witnessing an illumination of the Great Dome and Hall,
that they declared, it alone would compensate for a voyage across the
Atlantic. With the partial illumination of the Great Dome, we closed
our explorations on this side of the rivers, and retracing our steps,
reached the hotel about sun-set. At mid-night, the party which
separated from us at the entrance of Pensico Avenue, returned from the
points beyond the Echo river.

CHAPTER IX.

Third Visit--River Hall--Dead Sea--River Styx--Lethe--Echo River--
Purgatory--Eyeless Fish--Supposed Boil of the Rivers--Sources and
Outlet Unknown.

Early the next morning, having made all the necessary preparations for
the grand tour, which we were the more anxious to take from the
glowing accounts of the party recently returned, we entered the cave
immediately after an early breakfast, and proceeded rapidly on to
River Hall. It was evident from the appearance of the flood here, that
it had been recently overflown.

[Illustration: RIVER SCENE.
On Stone by T. Campbell
Bauer & Teschemacher's Lith.]

"The cave, or the River Hall," remarks a fair and distinguished
authoress, whose description of the river scenery is so graphic, that
I cannot do better than transcribe it throughout: "The River Hall
descends like the slope of a mountain; the ceiling stretches
away--away before you, vast and grand as the firmament at midnight."
Going on, and gradually ascending and keeping close to the right hand
wall, you observe on your left "a steep precipice, over which you can
look down b