enthusiastic admiration. With all its present beauty, this grotto is
far from being what it was, before it was despoiled and robbed some
eight or nine years ago, by a set of vandals, who, through sheer
wantonness, broke many of the stalactites, leaving them strewn on the
floor--a disgustful memorial of their vulgar propensities and
barbarian-like conduct.

Returning from the Fairy Grotto, we entered the Main Cave at the
Cataract, and continued our walk to the Chief City or Temple, which is
thus described by Lee, in his "Notes on the Mammoth Cave:"

"The Temple is an immense vault covering an area of two acres, and
covered by a single dome of solid rock, one hundred and twenty feet
high. It excels in size the Cave of Staffa; and rivals the celebrated
vault in the Grotto of Antiparos, which is said to be the largest in
the world. In passing through from one end to the other, the dome
appears to follow like the sky in passing from place to place on the
earth. In the middle of the dome there is a large mound of rocks
rising on one side nearly to the top, very steep and forming what is
called the _Mountain_. When first I ascended this mound from the cave
below, I was struck with a feeling of awe more deep and intense, than
any thing that I had ever before experienced. I could only observe the
narrow circle which was illuminated immediately around me; above and
beyond was apparently an unlimited space, in which the ear could catch
not the slightest sound, nor the eye find an object to rest upon. It
was filled with silence and darkness; and yet I knew that I was
beneath the earth, and that this space, however large it might be, was
actually bounded by solid walls. My curiosity was rather excited than
gratified. In order that I might see the whole in one connected view,
I built fires in many places with the pieces of cane which I found