and rising to your feet you may rest. The room is small, but contains
beautifully fluted walls, resembling basaltic columns; and natural marks
of erosion that resemble hieroglyphic inscriptions. From the other side
of this room the passage goes on with the same characteristics, but as
you enter to go forward a sound strikes the ear, and you pause to
listen. It is a confusion of sounds, a babel of voices; and sounds like
a distant conversation carried on by a large number of people. So
striking is this resemblance that you instantly ask the guide if there
are people in the room ahead, and hardly believe him when he says, 'No.'

"You hear voices of men, voices of boys, babies, girls and ladies, and
occasionally loud laughter; but forward is the word and on you go,
encouraged by the assurance of the guide that you are now over half way
through the passage and that the sounds came from Blondy's Throne Room.
Suddenly the passage divides into two much alike, and taking the right
hand one, you make your slow advance until at last, with clothes soaked
and covered with clay mud, and your strength about gone, you begin to
feel desperate and tell the guide that you will go no further, when you
see him rise to his feet, and he says: 'Here we are.' You step over a
steep bank of clay and emerge into a large room. It is almost square in
shape; about eighty feet long and sixty feet wide, and about fifty feet
high, with white, smooth walls and a pure white ceiling, and sloping
gradually downward on the left ends in a small, clear lake of water.
This lake has a beautiful beach of white pebbles, and though shallow on
the edge seems quite deep at the center; in fact it is believed to have
there a concealed opening that gives exit to its waters. On the opposite
side from you, a stream of clear water pours into the lake, and in doing
so it gives off the sounds that in the passage you mistook for human
voices; and this noble stream has been named Mystic River. It enters the
lake from under a beautiful natural arch, about thirty feet across at