CAVES AND CAVE DEPOSITS. 167 
the chasm’s brink. I have watched this wonderful abyss many 
a day of storm and sunshine. No one has ever been to the 
bottom of it; but I can tell you something more about it that 
bears directly on the subject we are considering. 
In that country, so favourable for the formation of all the 
various kinds of swallow-hole, cave, and keld, I once had the 
good fortune to witness one of those grand storms which in a 
few minutes change the face of nature, and in a few hours leave 
a mark that ages may not efface. 
I had climbed some way up Ingleborough. It was a glorious 
July morning. Myriads of insects were busy with their own 
various pursuits. The haymakers were hard at work; more 
hurried, perhaps, as the weatherwise saw thickenings towards 
the south, and felt the sultry heat that warned them there might 
be a storm. I turned now and then as I got higher, and sawthe 
mist gather on the southern horizon. Soon it took shape and 
formed in the eddies as the rapidly-rising wind crept on. Two 
principal masses of cloud came crowding up, converging on 
Ingleborough, from Lancaster and Clitheroe. — I had once before 
seen that kind of sky in South Wales, and, a few hours after, 
thirty-eight bridges were carried away in our county. So warned, 
I hurried homewards, and it was well I did. The clouds 
appeared to me to be rolling on in vertical planes. I ran, and 
only just got into my inn before the worst was on us. Drenched 
haymakers, who had lingered too long in some insufficient tem- 
porary shelter, kept coming into the village. The storm burst 
with all its fury on the south-eastern flank of Ingleborough. 
The stream that drains that area runs through the village of 
Clapham. The valley is dammed close above the village, to 
form a small tarn. This soon felt the flood, but, of course, the 
equalising effect of a lake upon the stream below it prevented 
our realising the tremendous rainfall for a time; because, 
before the stream could be raised six feet as it flowed out of 
this lake, the whole area of the lake had to be raised to that 
extent. But very soon this was done and the arch was filled, 
and a great spout of turbid water was projected forward on to 
the rocks at the base of the dam above the church. I went up 
the valley round the lake towards the celebrated Ingleborough 
Cave. It was a striking scene. Water spurted out of every 
crack and joint in the rocks, but the united subterranean water- 
courses could not carry it all, and the overflow from the drift- 
covered country above the usual outfalls rushed down the valley, 
carrying mud and boulders with it in its headlong course. The 
stream below the cave runs over bare limestone for a consider- 
able distance, and the noise made by the boulders, as they were 
rolled along the rocky floor, was so great that my companions 
thought the thunder-storm was beginning again and hurried 
home. I went on to the great cave. Here I saw a wonderful 
sight. The lower cave was full, and the water was spouting out 
