in width, with a low, narrow passage, or crawl, leading from the
northeast into the Grotto, a dome-shaped room formerly called the
Battery, on account of the great number of bats that used to congregate
in it. It is about forty feet in diameter and fifty feet in height. On
one side of this room is a narrow "squeeze" opening into a passage
several feet lower than the floor level of the Grotto and leading to the
Spanish Room, which when discovered bore indications of having been
occupied by a human being who had tried to escape by tunneling, or by
reaching a hole in the roof; which is said to be impossible for him to
have done without outside assistance. As no bones have been found we may
hope the assistance arrived in time. When the discovery of the room was
made, a quantity of loose rock was piled before the entrance, so if he
ever escaped it was not by that way.

After crawling back to the Corridor, through the same small, but dry
passage of seventy feet length, we saw a narrow ledge of fine crystals,
a deposit of Epsom salts, and a few bats that in the dim light looked
white but are a light tan color with brown wings. A good specimen
hanging on a projecting ledge of the wall remained undisturbed by us and
our lights, giving an opportunity for careful inspection so that we
presently discovered it to be a mummy; which naturally suggests that
this portion of the cave, being dry and opening out of the great
temple-like Auditorium as an alcove, could be converted into an imposing
crypt.

Making our way across the room to its southwest extremity over a varied
assortment of bowlders and down a drop of eight or ten feet, we crawled
into another tight-fitting dry passage lined with beautiful glittering
onyx like clear ice banded with narrow lines of red, of which broken
fragments covered the narrow floor and made a dazzling, but