. The American entomologist. Entomology. THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. .•?s We entered the cave, the mouth of which is in a little hollow behind the hotel, and after proceeding about two hundred yards found ourselves in a very large chamber called the Rotunda. Here two avenues lead off, one to the right, the other to the left. The left-hand turn is taken by all parties making either the " long " or the " short" route, and to the Rotunda they must always return on the way out. The passage to the right is an immense As I was anxious to begin at once my acquaintance with subterra
. The American entomologist. Entomology. THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. .•?s We entered the cave, the mouth of which is in a little hollow behind the hotel, and after proceeding about two hundred yards found ourselves in a very large chamber called the Rotunda. Here two avenues lead off, one to the right, the other to the left. The left-hand turn is taken by all parties making either the " long " or the " short" route, and to the Rotunda they must always return on the way out. The passage to the right is an immense As I was anxious to begin at once my acquaintance with subterranean life I de- cided to remain behind, leaving the guide and his party to continue their route, and arranging to meet them here in the Rotunda on their return at eleven o'clock. I watched their fading lights and listened to the rapidly diminishing sound of their foot- steps as they receded down the long pas- sage, then turned into Audubon Avenue, and following previous instructions, found [Fig. 9-. Phrixis longipes : «, claw of anterior tarsus ; ^, claws of posterior tarsi ; f, spider enlarged ten times (after Hubbard). gallery, like a great tunnel, eighty feet wide and forty feet high, and about three miles long. It is called Audubon Avenue, and has but few branch galleries, none of them very long. The first side passage that leaves Audubon Avenue is a mile long, and opens at its end into the top of Mam- moth Dome. So one may follow this passage to eternity, by stepping from the top to the bottom of Mammoth Dome, a distance of two hundred and fifty feet. and traversed to its end the side passage leading to the jump-off into the dome. The gallery was however very dry, and after careful search, finding no insects, I lost no time in returning to the Rotunda. This is also a dry chamber, but in a few places the walls are slightly moist, and there are ledges upon which the droppings of bats are collected. I found at last on one such moist shelf a little pile of fresh bats' dung,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectentomology, bookyear1
