120 NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY. 



I should suppose fifty yards in length, twenty to twenty-five 

 in breadth, and twelve or fourteen in height. Young Sheely 

 and Gorham gave me the precise measurement, but not only 

 did they not agree, but their statements considerably exceed- 

 ed my estimate of the dimensions ; therefore I prefer my own, 

 which is deduced from steps, when a question of length and 

 breadth, and from guess, when one of height. The roof is 

 adorned with an infinity of icicle-like stalactites, and the fis- 

 sures in the limestone are encrusted with glittering spar : the 

 floor is almost without a trace of stalagmitic deposition, but 

 in several places I observed the huge blocks of limestone of 

 which it is composed deeply pitted with the dropping of wa- 

 ter from the roof. 



I was now led through a passage of perhaps ten or fifteen 

 yards in length, and of considerable breadth and height, into 

 the "House of Lords." My childhood's dreams of the Grotto 

 of Antiparos were here completely realized. I felt that to see 

 this alone I would gladly have crossed the channel. I know 

 not how to describe it. Suppose a room a hundred yards 

 long, thirty yards wide, and ten yards high, — these are not 

 ascertained dimensions, — suppose the roof beautifully arched 

 as in Gothic halls, and that arched roof hung all over with 

 icicles, and suppose some dozen or so of these icicles of vast 

 size, hanging down till they reach incrusted masses of ice 

 rising from the floor, and so become graceful pillars support- 

 ing that vaulted roof; and then you may form some idea of 

 the extreme beauty of this fairy chamber. One huge pillar is 

 called the "Tower of Babel ; " and a mass of spar, where the 

 water containing the carbonate appears to have fallen on a 

 projecting rock, and so been compelled to trickle in various 

 directions, thus forming a multitudinous mass of conglomer- 

 ated stalactites, is called the " Turkish Tent." A third vast 

 aggregate of spar is called " the Beehive," and a fourth " the 

 Organ." The similarity of these beautiful masses of spar to 

 the objects whose names they bear, is very obscure; in the 

 instance of the organ, however, the pendant stalactites do 

 really in some degree resemble the pipes of an organ, and 

 Gorman and his associates followed each other in playing a 

 voluntary on these pipes, by flourishing their " sprigs " along 

 them, and thereby producing a sound by no means unplea- 

 sant. Between these are many large accumulations of spar, 

 all carefully named, but alas ! I have forgotten the nomencla- 

 ture ; and almost every part of the floor is covered by stalag- 

 mitic incrustations, which rise opposite to the stalactites pen- 

 dant from the roof. In a few instances, however, I observed 



