26 Dr. Mac Culloch*s Sketch of the 



about an hundred feet all is dark, wet and dreary, till we arrive at 

 a steep acclivity formed of a white stalagmite. Surmounting this 

 "with some difficulty, the whole interior and ornamental part of the 

 cave comes into view, covered with stalactites disposed in all the 

 grotesque forms which these incrustations so commonly assume. 

 Lively imaginations may here indulge in the discovery of fanciful 

 xesemblances, and the concretions have accordingly received names 

 more descriptive of the fancies of the spectators than of their real 

 forms. The dimensions of the fissure are in this place but incon- 

 siderable, the breadth not being more than ten feet, and the height 

 scarcely exceeding twelve: it is not long however before the 

 height suddenly increases to forty feet or more, and a declivity of 

 perhaps thirty feet in length, from the surface of the stalagmitical 

 and cascade-like mount which forms the division between the sparry 

 and the dark part of the fissure, conducts to a pool of water occupy- 

 ing a space of twelve or Jifteen feet in length, dividing the cave into 

 an outer and inner portion. The dimensions are here somewhat 

 enlarged, and the height in particular is much more considerable. 

 At a distance of about fifteen or twenty feet more from this pool of 

 water the stalactitical ornaments cease, and shortly after the cave 

 terminates, the whole length from the entrance to the end being 

 about two hundred and fifty feet. However beautiful the interior 

 of the cave, from the white colour and ornamental effects of the 

 stalactites which incrust it, the want of sufficient dimensions mate- 

 rially lessens the interest, which in all other respects it is calculated 

 to excite. At the termination of the stalactitical ornaments there is 

 a dark descent for a few yards, filled with rubbish, the ruins of the 

 roof above, which being here naked as well as accessible, is plainly 

 seen to be one of the trap veins. This vein is here about ten feet 

 wide, which is the general breadth of the cave itself, and it is easy 



