A. G. Cameron — On the Caverns at Stainton. 313 



one, after forming a sharp curve. The floor of the latter resembles 

 in most places the bed of a dry mountain torrent, being thickly 

 strewn with water-worn peebles and boulders. Soft yellow clay 

 occurs frequently, also gravel ; whilst again in other places there 

 is a pavement of hard, dry clay, split up by cracks into octagonal- 

 shaped masses. Lying on this pavement were a few small bones, 

 probably a badger's. A stalagmite floor has once covered the present 

 one, traces of which are to be seen in a narrow ledge of a few inches 

 remaining on either side. In this gallery are also Silurian boulders, 

 often cemented together in huge masses. A few of these boulders 

 are of a larger size than to have allowed of their entrance through 

 the as yet only known inlet to the place. Ireleth, distant about four 

 miles and a half, is the nearest point at which the rook, of which 

 these boulders are composed, is found in place. 



The gallery is so narrow at one or two spots as to admit of pro- 

 gress being made only by lying face downwards, and, so to speak, 

 wriggling through. At these very narrow points a notch occurs, 

 requiring a drop of five or six feet, when the passage is again con- 

 tinued at the lower level. Boulders and fragments of rock are 

 often met with, thrown against each other in the direst confusion, 

 as if impelled along by a very strong current, and suddenly stopped. 

 The 235 yard gallery terminates at the brink of a huge cavity, 

 similar in shape to a swallow hole, but possessing a dome-shaped 

 roof. The distance between roof and bottom might be 100 feet. 

 The walls bear indications of having at one time confined a large 

 body of water, which, revolving continuously and for a lengthened 

 period within the limits of the cavity, has cut its way into the rock, 

 and marked its course by circular lines. 



Near the bottom of this cavity, and lodged against its sides, and 

 against each other, are two large masses of Limestone, the larger 

 weighing probably twenty tons. They have no support but that 

 just indicated, and contribute not a little to the danger which attends 

 a descent into the cavern, which it may be as well to state was 

 effected in the present instance by means of a rope, secured at the 

 termination of the gallery, and used as a kind of railing to facilitate 

 progress down the clay-covered precipitous side of the cavity. 



At the bottom of the cavity is a narrow opening, forming a shelv- 

 ing wall ten feet deep, terminating in a ledge, at the brink of a 

 second cavity, the bottom of which, thirty feet lower, was reached 

 by ropes in a manner similar to the first descent. From the 

 bottom is again another short gallery, opening into a third cavity 50 

 feet by 30 feet, from which still another gallery branches ofi". Here 

 the explorations were brought to a close, as this lowest gallery was 

 found to be blocked by a mass of Drift after a very short distance. 

 A stream of running water occurs here, as also a seam of iron-ore. 

 Stones were dropped through a narrow opening in the Drift, and 

 were heard to fall into apparently deep water. 



Though the district of Furness is exceeding rich in both natural 

 and artificial beauties, the caverns at Stainton must claim the first 

 place in natural curiosities, and will, before long, in the event of a 



