that if we will but cross the "mountains"--which we find to be nothing
more than great rocks, which have fallen from the roof above, but
which, however, are not very easy to get over--we shall rest in the
"Fairy Grotto." So on we push, and reach the delightful abode of the
fairies of the Mammoth Cave. That is, if there were any fairies in
this cave, they would live here.

And a splendid place they would have!

Great colonnades and magnificent arches, all ornamented with beautiful
stalactites of various forms, and glittering like cut-glass in the
light of our lanterns, and thousands of different ornaments of
sparkling stone, many of them appearing as if they were cut by the
hand of skilful artists, adorn this beautiful grotto. At one end there
is a group of stalactites, which looks to us exactly like a graceful
palm-tree cut out of alabaster. All over the vast hall we can hear the
pattering and tinkling of the water, which has been dripping, drop by
drop, for centuries, and making, as it carried with it little
particles of earth and rock, all these beautiful forms which we see.

We have now walked nearly five miles into the great cave, and there is
much which we have not seen. But we must go back to the upper earth.
We will have a tiresome trip of it, but it is seldom that we can get
anything good without taking a little trouble for it. And to have seen
this greatest of all natural caverns is worth far more labor and
fatigue than we have expended on its exploration. There is nothing
like it in the known world.