As Shadrach had said, at its eastern extremity was a large, oblong boulder, so balanced that if even one person pushed on either of its ends it swung around, leaving on each side a passage large enough to allow a man to walk through in a crouching attitude.
Very silently we propped open this primaeval door and looked out.

Now the full moon was up, and her brilliant light had begun to flood the gulf.
By it we saw a dense shadow, that reached from the ground to three hundred feet or so above us.

This we knew to be that thrown by the flanks of the gigantic sphinx which projected beyond the mountain of stone whereon it rested, those flanks whence, according to Shadrach, Higgs would be lowered in a food-basket.

In this shadow and on either side of it, covering a space of quite a hundred yards square, lay the feeding-den, whence arose a sickly and horrible odour such as is common to any place frequented by cats, mingled with the more pungent smell of decaying flesh.
This darksome den was surrounded on three sides by precipices, and on the fourth, that toward the east, enclosed by a wall or barrier of rock pierced with several gates made of bars of metal, or so we judged by the light that flowed through them.
From beyond this eastern wall came dreadful sounds of roars, snarls, and whimperings.

Evidently there the sacred lions had their home.
Only one more thing need be mentioned.