242 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



light, the echo of the measured surge as it rises and falls, the transparent green of the 

 water, and the profound and fairy solitude of the whole scene, could not fail strongly to 

 impress a mind gifted with any sense of beauty in art or in nature, and it will be com- 

 pelled to own it is not without cause that celebrity has been conferred on the Cave of 

 Fingal." Caverns occur in modern porphyry in the neighbourhood of Quito, and even in 

 modern lavas, the ejection of which has taken place within the memory of man. Flinders 

 has made us acquainted with caves in the lava of the Isle of France ; and in the lava of 

 Vesuvius of 1805, Gay Lussac found several upon a small scale. But caverns of an 

 enormous extent occur in the lava of Iceland, that of Gurtshellir, situated in the torrent 

 which has flowed from Bald Yokul, being forty feet in height, by fifty in breadth, and 

 nearly a mile in length. Beautiful black volcanic stalactites hang from the high and spacious 

 vault, and the sides present a succession of vitrified horizontal stripes, a thick coating of 

 ice clear as crystal covering the floor. Henderson, in particular, describes one spot, the 

 grandeur of which surpassed all expectation, the light of the torches rendering it peculiarly 

 enchanting. The roof and sides of the cave were decorated with the most superb icicles, 

 crystallized in every possible form, many of which rivalled in minuteness the finest 

 zeolites ; while from the icy floor rose pillars of the same substance, assuming all the 

 curious and fantastic shapes imaginable, mocking the proudest specimens of art, and 

 counterfeiting many well-known objects of animated nature. A more brilliant scene, says 

 Henderson, perhaps never presented itself to the human eye, nor was it easy for us to 

 divest ourselves of the idea that we actually beheld one of the fairy scenes depicted in 

 Eastern fable. . 



Among the forms under which caverns present themselves, Humboldt distinguishes 

 three principal kinds, which essentially differ from each other, notwithstanding all their 

 apparent irregularities. 



The first appear in the form of cracks or fissures, like empty veins of ore, of greater or 

 less extent, but narrow and considerably prolonged, often penetrating far into the 

 mountain, and only reaching the day at one end. Eldon hole, in the Peak of Derbyshire, 

 is an example of this class. This is a deep yawning chasm in the limestone strata, but 

 no longer considered one of the wonders of the* .region, as its presumed unfathomable 

 depths have been satisfactorily measured. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Earl of 

 Leicester is said to have hired a man to go down into it to ascertain its extent and form. 

 The account of the adventure states, that he was let down about two hundred ells, and 

 after he had remained at the length of the rope awhile, he was drawn up again, with 

 great expectation of some discoveries ; but he came up senseless, and died within eight 

 days in a phrensied condition. Cotton alludes to this circumstance in his rude English 

 verses, 



" Once a mercenary fool, 'tis said, exposed 

 His life for gold, to find what lies inclosed 

 In this obscure vacuity, and tell 

 Of stranger sights than Theseus saw in hell ; 

 But the poor wretch paid for his thirst of gain 

 For, being craned up with a distempered brain, 

 A faltering tongue, and a wild staring look, 

 He lived eight days, and then the world forsook." 



Eldon Hole is a fissure about sixty feet long, twenty wide, and two hundred deep. In 

 the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1781, there is an account of the descent of 

 Mr. Lloyd, who was let down with a rope by eight men, and found the light sufficiently 

 strong at the bottom to allow him to read print. He discovered a fissure in the rock at 

 the bottom, through which a strong current of air proceeded, but as the aperture was 

 nearly filled up with huge stones, he could not examine it. A former owner of the 



