344 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



ants. It has been haunted by evil spirits, it is said, 

 time immemorial. There is no path to it, and so I am 

 afraid you will find it inaccessible, besides, to visit it 

 by day, and with a party, is not at all the way of seeing 

 it. Twilight, and solitude, and a melancholy imaginative 

 mood, can alone render it interesting. Well, it is night ; 

 the moon has just risen out of the frith, the bolder 

 features of the cliffs are partially relieved from the gloom 

 of the deeper recesses, and a level stream of pale light 

 has entered the wide mouth of the cavern, and falls on 

 the dim glimmering objects within. See how the dark 

 roof arches over us, and how the columnar stalactites of 

 the sides seem advancing towards us ; observe, too, how 

 our shadows stretch inwards and mingle with the dark- 

 ness ! What a theatre for the wild and the horrible ! 

 The floor is strewed over with what seem the fragments 

 of human bones, and then that spectral-looking object 

 within, does it not move ? Hear how the deep sullen 

 roar of the sea awakens all the echoes of the place till 

 they mutter from the deeper recesses, like the growling 

 of a wild beast, and the wave seems calling over our 

 heads ! Nay, draw nearer to me. I tremble like a 

 schoolboy. Surely these are human bones scorched and 

 blackened by fire, and gnawed by the teeth ; and look 

 yonder, is not that a skeleton reclining on the floor ? see, 

 the bony hand rests on the tattered fragments of a book. 

 He was the last who perished ; and oh ! with what feel- 

 ings must he have opened that book after he had finished 

 his horrible meal ! You have now seen the cave, and 

 more, but the more I am afraid you will deem rather 

 a nightmare of the imagination, than a dream. Am I 

 not bound, however, to tell you all ? 



' Before leaving MacFarquhar's Bed, I had a delight- 

 ful bathe among the rocks. There was a heavy sea turn- 



