CAVERNS. 



243 



hanging rock descending in one place to within twenty inches of its surface. The lake 

 is crossed in a boat or skiff, partly filled with straw, in which the passenger lies down, 

 and is conveyed to the other side, where a spacious vacuity opens 220 feet in length, 

 200 feet broad, and in some parts 120 feet high ; but from the want of light, neither the 

 roof nor the sides of this great cavity can be plainly discerned. Proceeding onwards by 

 the side of the Second Water, there is a projecting pile of rocks popularly called Roger 

 Rain's House, on account of the water incessantly dripping from the crevices of the roof. 

 Beyond this, another hollow opens, called the Chancel, where the rocks appear much 

 broken, and the sides are covered with stalactical incrustrations. Here the stranger is 

 generally surprised by an invisible vocal concert, which bursts in wild and discordant 

 tones from the upper regions of the cavern, where a group of women and children are 

 stationed for the purpose, the inhabitants of some of the huts at the entrance. After 

 leaving the Chancel, and passing the Devil's Cellar, and the Half-way House, the path 

 leads beneath three natural arches to another vast concavity, termed Great Tom of 

 Lincoln, from its resemblance to a bell. Here, under the influence of a strong light, the 

 arrangements of th j rock, the spiracles in the roof, and the flowing stream, produce a 

 striking scene. From this point the vault gradually descends, the passage contracts, and 

 at length leaves only room sufficient for the stream. The entire length of this great 

 excavation is 2250 feet, and its depth from the surface of the mountain about 620. A 

 striking effect is frequently produced by the explosion of a small quantity of powder, 

 wedged into a crevice of the rock, the report of which rolls along the roof and sides like 

 a heavy and prolonged peal of overwhelming thunder. On returning from this dark 

 recess, the effect of the light is singularly impressive. The rocks appear as if highly 

 illuminated, and the plants and mosses upon them so vividly green, as to produce the 

 impression that the sun must be shining brilliantly upon them, when the day is really 

 dull and hazy. The Peak cavern is thus an example of a succession of great chambers 

 connected together by narrow passages ; and when we remember the soluble nature 

 of the stone, and the stream that flows through it, there can be no doubt that, if not 

 formed altogether by the action of water, it yet owes its present condition to that 

 agency. A more extraordinary spot, perhaps, is in the neighbourhood, at the foot of 

 the TTinnats, or Windgates, called also the " portals of the winds," a deep and narrow 

 inclined chasm, about a mile in length, the lower descent of which commands a fine 

 view of the beautiful vale of Castleton. Here is the Speed\vell mine, an artificial 

 excavation, leading to a great natural cavern. After descending upwards of a hundred 

 steps, and reaching the blackness of darkness, the visitor embarks upon a canal so narrow 

 as to be able to touch the rock on both sides, and the ceiling above. Proceeding along 

 this channel, which is not far short of half a mile in length, the guide pushing along the 

 boat, an immense vacuity in the mountain is reached, and landing upon a ledge of 

 rock, the scene becomes indescribably strange and appalling with the aid of a Bengal 

 light. On the one hand there is an abyss of unknown depth, appropriately called the 

 Bottomless Pit, into which the water from the level falls with a startling sound, and 

 which swallowed up forty thousand tons of material in the excavation of the mine. 

 On the other hand an enormous cavity opens above, the ceiling of which no light 

 can reach, for rockets have been here let off, and have given out their brilliant corusca 

 tions as freely as from the surface of the earth. 



Humboldt describes a somewhat dissimilar but very remarkable cavern in the western 

 world, in the province of New Andalusia, not far from the convent of Caripe, called the 

 Cavern of the Guacharo the name of a class of nocturnal birds who make it their abode. 

 The exterior of the place was majestic even to one accustomed to the picturesque scenery 

 of the Alps. He had visited the Peak Cavern, and was acquainted with the different caves 



