UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 43 



wards from the floor, are equally curious. My 

 uncle explained to us, that when the quantity of 

 water that trickles through the roof is more than 

 can be evaporated from the surface of the stalac- 

 tite, the remainder falls on the floor, where the 

 same process occurs ; and thus the upper and 

 lower concretions proceed till they meet each 

 other and form an entire column. In the middle 

 of the widest part of the cavern there is a 

 stalagmite of twenty feet in diameter and twenty- 

 four in height; and on this superb natural 

 altar, another French nobleman had mass cele- 

 brated by his chaplain to more than five hundred 

 people who surrounded it. The cavern was 

 lighted by a hundred large torches and four hun- 

 dred lamps ; and the splendour of this illumina- 

 tion, reflected by the concretions which hung 

 from the roof, or which lined the sides, is de- 

 scribed as producing a very magnificent effect. 



liSth. It will not be my uncle's fault if I do 

 not pick up some information in this delightful 

 house, for every day he tells us something new. 

 He has just been describing the method of casting 

 plate glass ', and I hope some day to see the whole 

 operation myself. 



The furnace for melting the materials is about 

 eighteen feet long, and it is surrounded by ovens 

 for annealing the plates of glass when made, that 

 is, for cooling them slowly. The pots in which 



