ad
plenty of provision and plenty of candle. Each man, too, carried his
own tinder-box and a small coil of knotted cotton rope, which served as
a girdle, and so was not allowed to encumber our movements.

Light-hearted and eager, I led the way, and we pushed right in past the
rift on the ledge which led to the bird-chamber, for we were anxious to
see what had become of our raft.

It was just as I anticipated: we found it self-anchored between two
blocks of stone within fifty yards of the tunnel-arch; and landing it,
we cut the leather thongs, let out the wind, and then hid the whole
affair behind some rocks--in case, as Tom said, we might want it again.

A rest and a slight attack upon the provisions, and we were once more
journeying towards the mouth, but only to pause in the chamber where lay
the opening that had saved our lives.

A little agility took us to the mouth of the rift; and now, candle in
hand, we could see the passage through which we had travelled so
laboriously, to find it the easiest of any crevice we had traversed, the
floor being deeply covered with guano, as was the case with the
bird-chamber when we entered it, at last, to find a vast hall of
irregular shape, swarming with the guacharo, or butter-bird of South
America--a great night-jar, passing its days in these fastnesses of
nature, but sallying out at dark to feed. The uproar they made was
tremendous, and several times I thought that our lights would be
extinguished, though we escaped that trouble and continued our search.

The floor was nearly level, and the roof, like the others in the cave,
covered with stalactites; but the birds and their nests completely
robbed the place of beauty or grandeur.

An hour spent here convinced me that we knew the two only passages
leading from the place, so we continued our investigations, travelling
along the farther passage till the sound of the great waterfall smote
upon our ears, but still nothing rewarded our search though we went to
the end.

A passage of the most rugged nature, but a passage only, with nothing in
the shape of branch or outlet save into the amphitheatre, into which we
had no desire to penetrate. Certainly the passage widened out into a
chamber with glistening roof here and there, but with rocky floors, and
presenting nothing striking as likely to reward my search.

At the end of a couple of hours we were back in the bird-chamber (I
continue to call the places by the names that