174 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



in the boat without knocking our heads against the 

 top ; and along this passage we were rowed for a 

 distance of nearly half a mile, lighting the way as we 

 went by sticking candles against the wall. When 

 we had gone some distance from the place of embark- 

 ation we looked behind us and the reflection of the 

 lights in the still water was beautiful, reminding one 

 more than anything else of a long street lit up by gas. 

 This is the passage which was literally hewn out by 

 the muscle and sinews of the miners in their search 

 after lead ; and we could see one or two thin veins of 

 that metal crossing the cavern transversely. The 

 stillness, at first, seemed almost unearthly, especially 

 when we coupled with its effect the remembrance 

 that it was night. But, by-and-by, we could hear a 

 faint droning sound. On asking whence it came, we 

 were told to our astonishment, that it was caused by 

 the water upon which we were sailing falling over a 

 cataract into what is called the "bottomless pit." 

 As we proceeded, the noise increased until at length 

 we had to speak in a different note in order to hear 

 each other. We were so completely interested with 

 the uproar that we did not notice the boat had 

 stopped, until one of the company drew our attention 

 to it. A large rock had impeded our course, and to 

 it we moored the boat when we had landed. Raising 

 our candles over our heads we perceived a mighty 

 cavern, whose darkness our feeble lights only seemed to 

 render more obscure. On each side, high as we could 

 look up, huge rocks hung over, as though ready to 

 topple on our heads with the least disturbance. 



But the sight was inexpressibly grand when, after 

 lighting a rocket, the hissing and blazing torch mounted 

 upwards for more than three hundred feet without 

 reaching the top. As it ascended, the darkness below 

 became more and more palpable, and the dazzling 

 light above our heads revealed a similar arrangement 

 of rock masses to those which we could see below by 

 the faint light of our candles. The whole effect was 

 most striking, and had much of the character which 

 Martin has thrown into his wonderful picture of the 

 " Great Day of His Wrath." I shall never forget it ; 

 that sight has haunted my imagination scores of 

 times since. But we now turn our attention to the 

 falling volumes of water as they dashed over the 

 precipice. This is protected by a strong iron "rail- 

 ing;" and a dazzling "Roman light" held over 

 showed us a yawning chasm, into which the seething 

 waters hurried themselves. We could not see the 

 bottom, although it is known that a communication 

 exists between this and the " Peak cavern," a mile 

 away, for sawdust thrown into this stream has been 

 carried out by the rivulet which flows from the latter 

 cavern. These sights are those usually shown to 

 visitors, and well are they worthy of visitation ; for 

 it is seldom that such great natural phenomena are to 

 be found within so short a distance. But, as we 

 passed along by the tunnel to the cavern I have 

 mentioned, we had noticed several small passages 



branching out on our right hand, and now we returned 

 to make our explorations in them. 



Nobody had entered them for years, and we were 

 making the experiment for the sake of obtaining some 

 rare minerals, which, we had been told, were found 

 on the walls. Each of us was armed with hammers, 

 and with our "toilette" of miner's clothing, were 

 well prepared to "rough" it. So, in returning, we 

 stopped at the mouth of the right-hand passage, 

 called the " Half-way House," and fastened the boat 

 firmly to the rock — for had it chanced to drift away 

 we should have had a quarter of a mile to wade 

 through a stream three or four feet deep, whilst the 

 owner would have had to perform the same feat 

 right to the other end to bring it back. As we got 

 out of the boat we had about a foot of water to wade 

 through, along a narrow and dripping passage, for 

 about a hundred yards, cramping our backs with the 

 constant bending. We were relieved at the end by 

 being able to stand erect in a vast rent in the rocks, 

 extending so far above our heads that the dim light 

 of our candles could not enable us even to guess its 

 height. Between the walls of this fissure, which was 

 three or four feet across, there were bars of wood 

 placed to serve as staves, and fastening our hammers 

 in our belts and sticking our lights in our hats, we 

 mounted up one after the other. It was a somewhat 

 dangerous task, for the bars of wood had been placed 

 there for more than thirty year;, and were now rotten 

 from the constant moisture to which they had been 

 subjected, so that if the leading man had made a false 

 step and tumbled down, he would have sent us all 

 before him like a set of skittles. At last, after 

 mounting some hundred feet or more, we reached the 

 top, and found a passage similar to the one along 

 which we had waded, extending in a westerly direc- 

 tion. Along this we made our way with bended 

 backs, with the clanger of breaking our shins over an 

 old waggon, which had been left by the miners years 

 ago. Here we could see the lead vein crossing the 

 path, the matrix in which it occurred being filled with 

 cawk or sulphate of barytes in an uncrystallised 

 form. 



Farther on, the passage was so narrow that we had 

 to crawl on our knees among mud and debris ; all 

 this labour being abundantly recompensed by dis- 

 covering that, a little further, the masses of rock were 

 covered with crystals of carbonate of lime of various 

 sizes and forms, but chiefly of the " dog-tooth " shape. 

 These presented the appearance of having been 

 dusted with loaf sugar, owing to smaller crystals 

 having been formed upon them. Here we obtained 

 some magnificent specimens, the most curious being 

 a dog-tooth crystal of calcite, with a cubic one of fluor, 

 perfectly blue, mounted on the very apex. Standing 

 out in relief were numerous fossils, long jointed stems 

 of Encrinites, shells of Spirifera, Orthocera, and a 

 host of others. Already the weight behind had 

 bulged out the front part, and the whole seemed as 



