lO POOLE S HOLE. 



encrusted with spar, which is called Mary 'Queen of Scott's Pillar,' 

 so named (I am informed) by that unfortunate princess when she 

 visited this cavern. Here we made a stand, as the guides informed 

 me this pillar was the boundary of most people's curiosity ; before 

 me appeared a steep rugged declivity, of considerable depth. I 

 now asked the guides, if there was not a possibility of proceeding 

 to the extremity of the cavern ; they said, there was, but it could 

 not be attempted without considerable difficulty and danger. The 

 guides not appearing inclined to go any farther, I took one of 

 their candles, curiosity urging me to proceed. Having got down 

 the declivity, the passage, for a short distance, was narrow and 

 winding, the lights in the hands of my guides were rendered no 

 longer of service to me, and what I had apprehended, I had now 

 the mortification of being convinced of, which was, the light of 

 my small candle, being insufficient for me to discover the roof of 

 the cavern, which, from the immensity of the height, I conceived, 

 must have had an awful effect. The sides, in many parts, as high 

 as my light would enable me to see, were covered with petrefac- 

 tions, though none that I observed worthy of particular description. 

 The bottom was here much more rugged than that part of the 

 cavern most frequented, owing to the numerous fragments of 

 fallen rock obstructing the passage. Following the passage, I 

 soon arrived at the foot of a lofty precipice, which the guides had 

 informed me of, saying, that if I adventured, I should find a hole 

 at the height of about eighty yards, through which I must pass to 

 arrive at the end of the cavern ; I with difficulty, and not without 

 some danger, climbed the precipice until I arrived at the chink in 

 the rock which the guides had mentioned. It was just large 

 enough to admit a moderate sized person. The height of the 

 precipice to this aperture, I think, was exaggerated by the guides. 

 It appeared to me not more than fifty or sixty yards perpendicular 

 height. Beyond this aperture the bottom of the cavern, if I may be 

 allowed so to name it, ran nearly parallel with the aperture, and was 

 composed of loose stones which had fallen from the roof, some 

 partly encrusted with spar, and of various shapes and sizes, some 

 immensely large, and lying as rude as chaos, rendering the passage 



