CAVERN AT STONEHOUSE. 155 



clay, and vaulted with stone. It bears S. S. W. and 

 before we have crept through it, we see a passage of 

 difficult access and dangerous investigation. It runs 

 forward twenty-five feet, and opens over the vault 

 thirty feet high near the largest well. Opposite to 

 this passage are two caverns, both on the right hand. 

 The first bears N. W. by W. and running forwards 

 in a strait Hne about twenty feet, forms a curve that 

 verges somewhat to the N. E. Here we walk and 

 creep in a winding course from cell to cell, till we 

 are stopped by a well of water, the breadth and 

 depth of which are as yet not fully known. This 

 winding cavern is three feet wide, in some parts five 

 feet high, in some eight. Returning to the avenue 

 we find adjoining to this cavern, but separated by a 

 large and massy partition of stone, the second cavern 

 running west ; and by descending over some small 

 piles of lime-stone, or rather broken rocks, the bot- 

 tom here being shelvy slate, or more properly a 

 combination of slate and lime-stone, we discovered 

 another well of water. This is the largest; the 

 depth of it is, in one place, twenty-three feet, the 

 width uncertain. Opposite to this well, on the left 

 hand, by mounting over a small ridge of rocks, 

 covered with wet and slippery clay, we enter a vault 

 eight feet broad, eighteen long, thirty high. Here, 

 towards the S. E., a road, not easy of ascent, runs 

 upwards seventy-two feet towards the surface of the 

 earth, and so near to it, that the sound of the voice, 

 or of a mallet within, might be distinctly heard with- 

 out, in consequence of which a very large opening 

 has been made into it. At the bottom of this vault, 

 in a place not readily observed, is another well of 

 water, the depth of which, on account of its situa- 

 tion, cannot be well fathomed, nor the breadth of it 

 ascertained. 



While the miners were exploring those gloomy 

 and grotesque regions, they were alarmed at a mur- 

 muring sound, that seemed to come from the hol- 

 lows of the cave, and one of them, who chanced to 



