Connecticut western news., 1882-09-06

we nad soon all saIely lanQeu on tno
 rocks, except two men, who were left l with the windlass to draw us up again. | The other explorers at once mounted a
 ladder into @ large cavity twenty feet up the western side of the dome, and began to crawl up hill. This was the
 most difficult passage of all to traverse.
 There was soon barely room to drag
 ones self under the rock, and the floor
 was pool of liquid mud, full of sting
 ing crystals. At last, however, the
 lengthy form of that eminent engineer,
 MT. Sopwith, wriggled forth like ich-
 thyosaurus, and we were shortly gazing breathless across another chasm, into
 which no man han ever yet descended.
 MT. Nichols, however, had bar fas-
 tened across the cavity, rope was
 passed over the bar, into loop of which
 he inserted his leg, and then he disap-
 peared slowly over the brink. It was
 steep descent, in parts perpendicular,
 and we found the best plan to get down
 was to hold the rope fast and work with
 the feet. As it was an operation in which
 an accident might easily have occurred,
 we left some of the party in the cave,
 where they remained, peering down
 upon us. We found it to an be irregular,
 oblong vault, perhaps seventy feet high
 and thirty feet broad. There was, ap
 parently, no exit from it, but rifts were
 visible in the roof and high on the
 walls. The return was effected by go ing hand over hand up the rope, using the feet wherever there was niche Il the rock, and taking the utmost care tt
 avoid slipping off and swinging. Th cavern was then illuminated with ben zoline, which flowed down, accumulate' in little pools, and exploded with sue cession of loud reports. The walls ar , set all round with fine stalactites, bu this will not, though much loftier, bea any comparison for beauty with tn Beehive Cavern.
 ! After another difficult and very un pleasant scramble through the mu u hole, in the course of which my canal was extinguished, we reached the Dom Cavern. Having washed our hands a pool of clear water, we sat down to luncheon, which included everythin ? usually provided at picnics, with th @ addition of salt and the limestone bu IT ter of the slopes above. We lay abor e the feast in various post tures on tt o rocks, every one covered with. the re 't ochre mud. The two miners stood b. o with boards stuck full of candles, ar 10 waited on us. The wall behind us slope y forward into darkness, and high owe 1' head the two men at She winala 's watched, their candles burning lii e glow-worms. Presently two membe ~ of the party retired out of sight al .s sang solos. The echo is not so deligh @0 full as that of the last cave in Wook a' Hole, where, as I have proved, u y notes of chord, sung Tn successio o .o die slowly away in signing harmon ~ But it is far more powerful. A verse - the national anthem was sung by u L 'l entire company, and while the holle ,a = roof added it's long-drawn thunder, u ~ ready Nichols fired Bengal light, al . the vast invisible dome was reveale ,d glittering like starry night above ,d In quarter of an hour afterward ad stood again on the sunny mounts top, having been underground exact , six hours. to London Times.