enough to admit the body of a man,--and now walking in superb
galleries, until we came to the largest room, called WASHINGTON HALL.
This is certainly the most elegant room I ever saw. It is about two
hundred and seventy feet in length, about thirty-five in width, and
between thirty and forty feet high. The roof and sides are very
beautifully adorned by the tinsels which Nature has bestowed in the
greatest profusion, and which sparkle like the diamond, while surveyed
by the light of torches. The floor is flat, and smooth, and solid. I was
foremost of our little party in entering the room, and was not a little
startled as I approached the centre, to see a figure, as it were, rising
up before me out of the solid rock. It was not far from seven feet high,
and corresponded in every respect to the common idea of a ghost. It was
very white, and resembled a tall man clothed in a shroud. I went up to
it sideways, though I could not really expect to meet a ghost in a place
like this. On examination I found it was a very beautiful piece of the
carbonate of lime, very transparent, and very much in the shape of a
man. This is called WASHINGTON'S STATUE--as if Nature would do for this
hero what his delivered country has not done--rear a statue to his
memory.

Here an accident happened which might have been serious. One of our
party had purposely extinguished his light, lest we should not have
enough to last. My companion accidentally put out his light, and in
sport came and blew out mine. We were now about sixteen hundred feet
from daylight, with but one feeble light, which the falling water might
in a moment have extinguished. Add to this, that the person who held
this light was at some distance viewing some falling water.

"Conticuere omnes, intentique ora tenebant."