The Golden Dream: Adventures in the Far West

Ned stood in the centre of a cavern of vast dimensions-so vast, and so full ofintense light, that instead of looking on it as a huge cave, he felt disposed to regardit as a small world. The sides of this cavern were made of pure gold, and the roof-far above his head-was spangled all over with glittering points, like a starry sky.The ground, too, and, in short, everything within the cave, was made of the sameprecious metal. Thousands of stalactites hung from the roof like golden icicles.Millions of delicate threads of the same material also depended from the starspangled vault, each thread having a golden ball at the end of it, which, strange tosay, was transparent, and permitted a bright flame within to shine through, andshed a yellow lustre over surrounding objects. All the edges, and angles, and pointsof the irregularly-formed walls were of burnished gold, which reflected the rays ofthese pendant lamps with dazzling brilliancy, while the broad masses of the frostedwalls shone with a subdued light. Magnificent curtains of golden filigree fell in richvoluminous folds on the pavement, half concealing several archways which led intosmaller caverns, similar to the large one. Altogether it was a scene of luxuriousrichness and splendour that is utterly indescribable.