1S49O THE CAVE. 105 



ever, having come on purpose to see them, I was determined 

 to persevere, and soon reached the place. They were much 

 larger than the others, and extended higher up the rock ; the 

 figures, too, were all different, consisting principally of large 

 concentric circles, called by the natives the sun and moon, and 

 several others more complicated and three or four feet high. 

 Among them were two dates of years about 1770, in very 

 neat well-formed figures, which I have no doubt were the work 

 of some travellers who wished to show that they knew how the 

 others were executed, and to record the date of their visit. 

 Near some of the higher figures were two or three impressions 

 of hands in the same colour, showing the palm and all the 

 fingers very distinctly, as if the person executing the upper 

 figures had stood on another's shoulders and supported himself 

 with one hand (smeared with the red colour) while he drew with 

 the other. I also took copies of the figures at this place, 

 which, being large and exposed, are visible from a considerable 

 distance round, and are more generally known than the others, 

 which are in a secluded and out-of-the-way situation, and were 

 probably not visited by any European traveller before myself. 



We walked some distance further, to get some water, before 

 returning towards the cave. There we found that our guides 

 had arrived, and they soon led us up a steep path to its mouth, 

 which is so well concealed by trees and bushes that our failing 

 to discover it was not to be wondered at. The entrance is a 

 rude archway, fifteen or twenty feet high ; but what is most 

 curious is a thin piece of rock which runs completely across 

 the opening, about five feet from the ground, like an irregular 

 flat board. This stone has not fallen into its present position, 

 but is a portion of the solid rock harder than the rest, so that 

 it has resisted the force which cleared away the material above 

 and below it. Inside there is a large irregularly arched 

 chamber, with a smooth sandy floor, and at the end there are 

 openings into other chambers ; but as we had not brought 

 candles we could not explore them. There was nothing about 

 the cave at all remarkable, except the flat transverse rock at 

 its mouth. The vegetation around it was by no means 

 luxuriant or beautiful, nor were there any flowers worth noticing. 

 In fact, many of our caves in the limestone districts of 

 England are in every way more picturesque and interesting. 



I had heard of a plant growing in the pools in the marsh, 



