THE YORKSHIRE GATES. 65 



and bracing, the scenery around picturesque and beautiful, the 

 visit to the cave, apart from its historical interest, was somewhat 

 of a disappointment. Its condition, owing to the excavations, 

 the dampness of the sticky clay floor, added to our want of 

 lights, was not such as to invite extensive exploration, but it is 

 desirable we should know something of it, and I am indebted to 

 the Guide Book for the following description : — At the opening 

 the cave is nearly one hundred feet in width, and is now about 

 thirty-two feet in height. Chamber D is distinguished by a 

 dome, which rises as a kind of architectural feature above the 

 rest of the ^cave. In this chamber were found bones in great 

 number and variety, two hundred and sixty -nine specimens hav- 

 ing been classified by Professor Busk in 1875. The Birkbeck 

 Gallery (so named after Dr. Birkbeck, the founder of Mechanics' 

 Institutions, who was born in Settle) extends to a distance of one 

 hundred and twelve feet from this dome. The gallery is full of 

 holes and drops, which make it no easy work to proceed to the 

 extremity. A glassy moist stalactite covers the walls. Eeturn- 

 ing from^the Bii'kbeck Gallery, we enter Chamber B, which is the 

 finest in the cave. This chamber is, with A, upon the left as 

 you enter. Water lies in the bottom, where a shaft was sunk 

 from above, to a depth of twenty-five feet. The stalagmite in 

 this chamber is six feet in thickness. Chambers A and B were 

 the dwelling-places of the human inhabitants who, in historic 

 times, took shelter and refuge in this strange retreat. Fancy 

 can picture the unhappy refugees, with the relics of their civili- 

 zation about^^them ; hiding from the barbarian invader in these 

 gloomy caverns, crouching by their wretched fires, and feeding 

 upon the flesh of their threatened flocks and herds. 



The views opened out, and the thoughts suggested, by even a 

 cursory examination of the contents of these caves, as to the 

 conditions of man's existence,, and his relations with the lower 

 animals, wild and domestic, both in historic and prehistoric 

 times, are well calculated to fascinate the minds of all those who 

 delight in glancing down the vistas of remote ages, thus illumi- 

 nated, not by abstract speculations, but by undeniable evidences 

 found in the dark recesses of the mountain and the rock ; and 



