140 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



heard. The aperture was a crack in a table-rock of 

 limestone, about three inches by two, its sides were 

 worn smooth by listeners who had placed their ears 

 upon it from time immemorial. On following the 

 example of the thousands who had probably preceded 

 me I was saluted by a strong draught of air, which 

 rushed upwards from unknown depths, and heard to 

 my surprise the mighty roaring sound that had given 

 the rock its mystical reputation ; but I felt at once 

 that no subterranean river large enough to produce 

 the rushing of such a torrent was likely, for physical 

 reasons, to exist in this locality, for the noise was that 

 of a distant Niagara. I was puzzled till I ascended 

 a neighbouring hill, where the roar of the sea was 

 distinctly audible ; and I am therefore disposed to 

 think that the fissure must have led to a cave on the 

 sea-shore, from which the sound is conducted, as by 

 a whispering gallery, to this point, distant from it 

 about three miles. There was a fine plateau of arable 

 land on this property, while some of the hillsides 

 were fairly wooded, and others covered with a thick 

 under-brush, in which are to be found wild cats, 

 gluttons, porcupines, and other animals. The natives, 

 however, were highly excited, because they had killed 

 the previous day an animal which they all declared 

 they had never seen before. They had attempted to 

 skin it, but had been unable to do so, on account of 

 its odour. On inspecting the carcass, I found to my 

 surprise that it was a fine specimen of what appeared 



