ON CAVES. i 85 
there might be a storm. I turned now and then as I got 
higher, and saw the mist gather on the southern horizon. 
Soon it took shape and formed in the eddies as the rapidly- 
rising wind crept on. ‘Two principal masses of cloud came 
crowding up, converging on Ingleborough, from Lancaster 
and Clitheroe. I had once before seen that kind of sky in 
South Wales, and, a few hours after, thirty-eight bridges were 
carried away in our county. So warned, | hurried homewards, 
and it was well I did. The clouds appeared to me to be 
rolling on in vertical planes. I ran, and only just got in to 
my inn before the worst was on us. Drenched haymakers, 
who had lingered too long in some insufficient temporary 
shelter, kept coming into the village. The storm burst with 
all its fury on the south-eastern flank of Ingleborough. 
The stream that drains that area runs through the village 
of Clapham. ‘he valley is dammed close above the village, 
to form a small tarn. This soon felt the flood, but, of 
course, the equalising effect of a lake upon the stream 
below it prevented our realising the tremendous rainfall for a 
time ; because, before the stream could be raised six feet as it 
flowed out of this lake, the whole area of the lake had to be 
raised to that extent. But very soon this was done and the 
arch was filled, and a great spout of turbid water was pro- 
jected forward on to the rocks at the base of the dam above 
the church. I went up the valley round the lake towards 
the celebrated Ingleborongh Cave. It was a striking scene. 
Water spurted out of every crack and joint in the rocks, but 
the united subterranean watercourses could not carry it all, 
and the overflow from the drift-covered country above the 
usual outfalls rushed down the valley, carrying mud and 
boulders with it in its headlong course. ‘The stream below 
the cave runs over bare limestone for a considerable distance, 
and the noise made by the boulders, as they were rolled along 
the rocky floor, was so great that my companions thought the 
thunder-storm was beginning again, and hurried home. I went 
on to the great cave. Here | saw a wonderful sight. The 
lower cave was full, and the water was spouting out of the 
upper cave, which is usually dry, as you pour water out of the 
mouth of a kettle; and well it might, for, if the swallow-hole 
that feeds it was full to overflowing, it had had the pressure 
of more than eleven atmospheres upon it. 
This was one of the most instructive geological phenomena 
it has ever fallen to my lot to witness. Here I saw what was, 
to all intents and purposes, a local cataclysm. Gentle slopes 
of pasture, where usually no stream ran, were suddenly 
gashed by a torrent, and the débris swept far away across the 
VOL. XXT, H 
