The Cupola Cavern. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



seems as if divided into several large halls and 

 other apartments. The vast number of pillars 

 by which it is ornamented by nature gives it 

 a superb appearance ; for they are as white as 

 snow, and have a kind of transparent lustre. 

 The bottom is of the same material ; so that a 

 person may imagine he is walking among the 

 ruins of some stately palace, amidst noble pillars 

 and columns, partly mutilated and partly entire. 

 From the top, sparry icicles are seen every- 

 where suspended ; in some places resembling 

 wax tapers, which, from their radiant whiteness, 

 appear extremely beautiful. Here occurs that 

 extraordinary animal the Proteus, in shape be- 

 tween a lizard and an eel, transparently white, 

 with a tinge of rose colour about the head. It 

 adds, as Davy remarks, one instance more to the 

 number already known of the wonderful manner 

 in which life is produced and perpetuated, even 

 in places which seem the least suited to organ- 

 ised existences an animal to whom the pre- 

 sence of light is not essential, living indifferently 

 in air and in water, on the surface of the rock, 

 or in the depths of the mud. 



Of an analogous kind is the Peak cavern in 

 Castleton Dale, the approach to which is in the 

 highest degree magnificent. The traveller passes 

 through a chasm between two ranges of perpen- 

 dicular rocks, having on his left a rivulet which 

 issues from the cave, and pursues its splashing 

 course over craggy and broken masses of lime- 

 stone. A vast mass of rock suddenly appears 

 before him, with the mouth of the cavern, which 

 assumes the form of a depressed arch, a hundred 

 and twenty feet in width, forty-two in height, 

 and about ninety in receding depth. At the first 

 entrance, a spectator is surprised to find that a 

 number of twine makers have established their 

 residence and manufactory within this gulf ; and 

 their rude appearance and machines singularly 

 combine with the sublime features of the natural 

 scenery. After proceeding about thirty yards, 

 the roof becomes lower, and a narrow passage is 

 reached where the blaze of day, which has been 

 gradually softened into twilight, wholly disap- 

 pears, and all further researches must be prose- 

 cuted by torch-light. After penetrating twenty 

 or thirty yards in a stooping posture, there is a 

 spacious opening, beyond which is the margin of 

 a small lake called the First Water, the over- 



