From the course of his needle, the doctor expected that this avenue would have led circuitously to the chief city; but was much disappointed when he reached the extremity, a few hundred yards’ distance from the fourth city. In retracing his steps, not having paid a due attention to mark the entrances of the different avenues, he was greatly bewildered, and once completely lost himself for nearly fifteen or twenty minutes. Thus, faint and wearied, he did not reach the chief area till ten at night; but was still determined to explore the cavern so long as his light should last. Having entered the fifth and last avenue from the chief area, and proceeded south-east about nine hundred yards, he came to the fifth area, the arch of which covers upward of four acres of level ground, strewed with limestone, and having fire-beds of an uncommon size, surrounded with brands of cane, interspersed. Another avenue on the opposite side, led to one of still greater capacity, the walls or sides of which were more perfect than any that had been noticed, running almost due south for nearly a mile and a half, and being very level and straight, with an elegant arch. While the doctor was employed, at the extremity of this avenue, in sketching a plan of the cave, one of his guides, who had strayed to a distance, called on him to follow. Leaving the other guide, he was led to a vertical passage, which opened into a chamber at least eighteen hundred feet in circumference, and the center of the arch of which was one hundred and fifty feet in hight. It was past midnight when he entered this chamber of eternal darkness; and when he reflected on the different avenues through which he had passed since he had penetrated the cave at eight in the morning, and now found himself buried several miles in the dark recesses of this awful cavern—the grave, perhaps, of thousands of human beings—he felt a shivering horror. The avenue, or passage, which led from it was as large as any he had entered; and it is uncertain how far he might have traveled had his lights not failed him. All those who have any knowledge of this cave, he observes, conjecture that Green river, a stream navigable several hundred miles, passes over three of its branches.