50 The Peak Cavern. 



antiquities and its rich supplies to the naturalist and the 

 mineralogist 



The first speciality is the curious but much over-praised 

 " Peak Cavern." The vestibule, however, is truly worth 

 the journey. Enormous masses of rock rise perpendi- 

 cularly upon either side, clothed sparingly with ferns, 

 sycamores, and mountain-ash trees, that seem to grow 

 out of the very stone. Birds of jet-black plumage fly in 

 and out of holes as far above our heads as the minarets 

 of a cathedral, and seem to know that they are secure 

 from pillage. A stream rolls out from the darkness; 

 sunshine scarcely reaches ; and even the rain falls but 

 scantily ; yet, even down in this awful chasm, so beau- 

 tifully does nature combine her extremes, in proper 

 season may be heard the call of the cuckoo. 



Presently we find ourselves under a vast natural arch- 

 way, 1 20 feet wide at the entrance, and more than 40 feet 

 in height, the roof gradually receding and descending, 

 till, at the distance of about 100 feet from the threshold, 

 we reach the opening into the actual cavern. So far all is 

 good ; and so far no one can penetrate unimpressed with 

 the sense of grandeur. To push forward is quite another 

 matter. With this grand vestibule and Cyclopean porch, 

 we venture to say, Be satisfied. The cavern is not what 

 many suppose, a subterranean hall or grotto, big as the 

 Pantheon. Excepting that at some distance from the 

 aperture there is considerable enlargement, it is nothing 

 more than an immense internal crack in the hill, uncer- 



