It crowded out a hundred other unsupported suggestions.

Did not this explain the nature of the bond which existed between the Great Eyrie and the letter which I had received with our commander's initials?
And the threats against me if I renewed the ascent! And the espionage to which I had been subjected! And all the phenomena of which the Great Eyrie had been the theater, were they not to be attributed to this same cause--though what lay behind the phenomena was not yet clear?
Yes, the Great Eyrie! The Great Eyrie! But since it had been impossible for me to penetrate here, would it not be equally impossible for me to get out again, except upon the "Terror ?" Ah, if the mists would but lift! Perhaps I should recognize the place.

What was as yet a mere hypothesis, would become a starting point to act upon.
However, since I had freedom to move about, since neither the captain nor his men paid any heed to me, I resolved to explore the hollow.
The three of them were all in the grotto toward the north end of the oval.

Therefore I would commence my inspection at the southern end.
Reaching the rocky wall, I skirted along its base and found it broken by many crevices; above, arose more solid rocks of that feldspar of which the chain of the Alleghanies largely consists.

To what height the rock wall rose, or what was the character of its summit, was still impossible to see.