4 MR. ROOKE PENNINGTON ON A 



hall about lOO feet across and about 70 feet high. The 

 floor of this hall sloped like the tunnel^ and_, like it, was 

 covered with delaris. At the lower side we were about 60 

 feet below our lauding-place, and therefore about 240 feet 

 beneath the surface. The entire roof and walls of this 

 cavern were covered with splendid stalagmitic deposits. 

 From the roof were hung fine stalactites, whilst the sides 

 were covered with almost every conceivable form of depo- 

 sited carbonate of lime. In some places it was smooth and 

 white as marble, in other places like frosted silver, whilst 

 the rougher portions of the rock were clothed with all sorts 

 of fantastic shapes glistening with moisture. ^Tien we 

 had lighted some Bengal fire, I need hardly say the eflFect 

 was exquisite. From this cavern we could find no opening 

 of any length or depth save the one by which we had 

 entered it, although we very carefully explored it. There 

 is an absurd local tradition of an old woman's goose which 

 flew down, and was given up as lost, but which subsequently 

 reappeared at the mouth of the Peak Cavern, at Castleton. 

 The sagacious and enterprising bird must have been much 

 cleverer than we were. 



There can be no doubt that this chasm has been formed 

 by the chemical action of carbonic acid in water, and that 

 it has attacked this particular spot either from the unusual 

 softness of the rock originally situated here, or because 

 there was here a joint or shrinkage in the strata. There 

 is nothing, however, in the position of Elden Hole to lead 

 one to suppose that any stream has ever flowed through it; 

 no sign of such a state of things appears anywhere around. 



In this it differs from the numerous water-swallows of 

 the neighbourhood, and from the pot-holes of North-West 

 Yorkshire. It is not related to any valley or ravine, or to 

 any running water ; and there is, as observed, an absence 

 of any well-defined exit for water at the bottom. No 



