Lives of Alcyone

themselves with food for many days, and also with a supply of
torches to light them during their exploration. With considerable
trouble they found the entrance to a cavern which was apparently
quite unknown to the tribes living in the neighbourhood. They
entered it with considerable misgivings, not caring, when it came to
the point, to trust themselves in its intricacies, for indeed it seemed
to be a perfect labyrinth. For a long time it led them merely into the
heart of the mountain, without making any specially appreciable
descent, but eventually the course of the naturally-arched passage
which they had been directed to follow turned steeply downwards,
and they had to do an amount of downward climbing which was
exceedingly awkward and perilous for them, hampered as they were
with bundles of torches and packages of food.
How far down they actually penetrated they had no means of
knowing, nor could they estimate with any sort of accuracy the time
which the descent occupied, but their underground journey must
have been altogether a matter of many days. They suffered a good
deal from the pressure of the atmosphere, which was great at that
depth, and alarming to them, as of course they did not in the least
understand it. The temperature also increased slightly, but not
seriously enough to interfere in any way with their advance, though
the conditions made the violent exertion of progress over so rough a
road exceedingly trying. They had many narrow escapes, more than
once only just avoiding serious accidents. Though they knew
nothing of such matters it seems probable that they were travelling
down a kind of fault or fissure, which may perhaps have been
caused by an earthquake, or possibly by some volcanic outburst of
long ago. Fortunately, plenty of water was usually available,
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