The entrance furnishes an illustration of damage done by careless visitors years ago, and of the necessity for constant care to preserve the caves from destruction. When this cavern was first opened to the public the floor was white as snow. It is now black and greasy, as well as dusty. The change has been brought about by the pattering of feet encased in soiled boots, and by drips from candles and torches used before the present lighting arrangements were adopted. Some of the stalactites have their lower portions damaged in a similar way. But, worse still, an elaborate and very attractive specimen, resembling cockscomb, has been damaged by fracture, and made incomplete by unauthorised appropriation. The porosity of some of the rocks can here be readily distinguished. Their surface is like that of pumice stone. In dry weather the walls are sparkling; in wet seasons they are moist and dull. At the far end of the cave the floor is covered with little indurated lumps with carved surfaces. They are all similar in shape, and vary in bulk from the size of quandong seeds or nuts, of which bracelets are sometimes made, to that of a mandarin orange. Perhaps they were fabricated on the roof and became detached. It is hardly possible they could have been formed where they lie without being joined together in a solid mass. Here perfect silence reigns. It is so profound as to be almost painful, and the darkness is so dense that when the candles are extinguished the visitor can pass a solid object before his eyes without the shadow of a shade being perceptible. It is not suggestive of the darkness which-- "Falls from the wings of Night Like a feather that is wafted downwards From an eagle in its flight." Nor yet of "the trailing garments of the Night" sweeping "through her marble halls." There is nothing to give the idea of action. Solitary confinement for 24 hours in such a "separate cell" would drive some men mad. At the end of the cave is a mass of stalactites, through which is a passage leading to "The Belfry," where are some large stalactites, three of which, when struck with a hard substance, sound like church bells. One of them has a deep tone, equivalent to C natural. The others do not vibrate so as to produce perfect notes according to musical scale, nor are their sounds either rich or full. [Illustration: THE CARLOTTA ARCH.] CHAPTER VIII. THE CARLOTTA ARCH.