FINGAL'S CAVE, 47 
of the guide, it is necessary to hold fast with the right to fe 
pillar of the wall. As this difficult path is most dangerous in 
the darkest part of the cave, but few tourists are bold enough 
to trust themselves to it, for the least false step must infallibly 
precipitate the adventurous explorer into the seething caldron 
below. Sometimesa cormorant, fearless of any accident of this 
kind, has built his nest upon the top of one of the truncated 
Fingal’s Cave. 
pillars, which form the pavement of the pathway, and betrays 
by a peevish hissing his ill humour at being disturbed in his 
solitary retreat by the intrusion of man. 
The narrow path ultimately widens into a more roomy and 
slanting space formed of the remains of more than a thousand 
perpendicular truncated shafts. The back wal] consists of a 
range of unequally sized pillars, arranged somewhat like the 
tubes of an organ. When the waves rush with tumultuous fury 
