CAVERKS. 



257 



spaces have been excavated by the labour of man, chiefly in the limestone, coal, and salt 

 formations, to obtain the products which are essential to the arts of life. At certain 

 points and limits of the South Staffordshire " Coal Basin," the limestone stratification is 

 abruptly exalted from its normal position, which is several hundred feet below the regular 

 surface, and forms a striking object in scenery, and a picturesque mountain boundary, to 

 the district of towns, hamlets, and villages, in which the usual mining operations for coal 

 and iron stone are. pursued. It is worked to procure a valuable flux for the iron furnaces 

 cement for building and a manure for agricultural purposes. Dudley Castle Hill is 



a bold and rugged prominence, where the quarries were primarily worked. The excava 

 tions at first were open to the light, commencing from the protruding ridges and peaks, 

 and forming in time a deep hollow or ravine. Clearing the rock as far as was convenient, 

 the rapid inclination of the stratum was followed, and the work was then continued at a 

 much lower level, in the form of gloomy tunnels, afterwards threaded by dark and dan 

 gerous canals, necessary for the conveyance of the product of the perforated region. At 

 the lower part of the castle grounds, and not far distant from the Eastern Lodge, is the 

 descent to one of the great caverns, answering to our illustration. By a few uncertain 

 slippery steps the visitor arrives at the moist crumbled floor of a wondrous avenue of 

 rock works. Indistinctly, and at an inferior plane, glimmer the dull waters of the canal, 

 the line of which is only broken in part by a covered way, to re-appear in the onward 

 distance of the hazy mine. As the strata are sometimes at an angle of eighty degrees, some 

 times less, the enormous broad-footed pillars of material left to support the irregular roof, 

 answer to such inclination, and are perpendicular to it, presenting a wild and singular 

 appearance. The force and sublimity of this scenery by torchlight are most interesting, 

 and the frowning boundaries of the spacious crypts, the pillars, and the rude chambers, 

 remind one distinctly of the mn/es of the Memphic tombs. Proceeding to the left, 



