1833.) ; Miscellaneous. 659 
noxious vapour existed; we also took some fowls to see the effect procured on 
them. After a fatiguing walk of three miles, up rocky steep ravines, we arrived 
at the entrance of this singular cavern, the mouth of which was fifty feet wide and 
thirty feet high, descending very rapidly to a depth of thirty feet. 
The guides set fire to some brushwood, and found the air much less noxious 
than usual; and it was only after a descent of 10 feet that we felt any inconveni- 
ence. We were absolutely standing on the bones of some animals which had 
perished there upona former occasion; we remarked a dog, a deer, and two 
foxes; the head of a wolf lay at some distance. We, at the same time, put to 
flight a great number of pigeons, who build in the roof of the cave. We found 
that fire was extinguished at afew feet below where we stood, and the fowls died 
in half a minute. The sides of the cave had many marks of sulphur in powder 
amongst the soft sand and limestone, which were also strongly coloured with iron. 
Though the fire made with dry brush-wood and thorns, even when sprinkled with 
naphtha, was instantly extinguished, port fires and fuses burnt nearly the same 
time as in the open air. I was, therefore, enabled to fire a quantity of gunpowder 
at the very bottom. The quantity amounted to several pounds at the time, and 
that repeated often, had the effect of so entirely filling the cave with smoke, that 
we could no longer see any thing at the bottom. On again throwing in some 
fowls, they soon made their escape, and fire burnt at the bottom. I would not, 
however, allow any of the people to descend, which they appeared willing to do; 
a dog also ran in and returned ina few minutes. Ona former occasion, when 
this cave was visited by a party of the Mission, accompanied by Mr. Brownz, the 
celebrated African traveller, fire would not burn two feet below the entrance, and 
' oppression was felt close at the mouth of the cave. Mr. Browve entered some 
paces by holding his breath, but an English officer attached to the Mission had 
nearly perished in attempting to follow him, He was instantly dragged out, and 
recovered with some difficulty. In the winter (subsequently to my second visit), 
- after a strong gale, the wind from the N. W. had blown for some days directly in- 
to the mouth of the cave : we were enabled to walk all over it, and only in a deep 
hole, at the bottom, did there exist any noxious air. There a fowl died in two 
minutes, and from its cries appeared to suffer much. After sixty feet, we found 
the cave again ascended, and curyed a little to the right: it then became exceed- 
ingly narrow and very low, forming a kind of passage, which did not allow of 
standing up; we could not see to the end of this even witha reflecting lamp, 
and none of us felt inclined to prosecute the discovery. I have only mentioned 
these circumstances to prove how much the extent and force of the vapour are 
affected by the state of the atmosphere, and by particular circumstances. As the 
ground slopes rapidiy from the mouth of the cavern, both to the ravine and 
inwards, it might be cleared away with little difficulty, and the heavy noxious 
gas thus allowed to pass off; but with the exception of forming a large winter 
stable for sheep, no other good purpose could be answered by it; there was 
formerly a human skeleton, which has been removed ; it was that of an old man 
in the village, who, tired of life, took this way of ending his misery; the peasants 
considered the circumstances of the cave being accessible little short of a mira- 
cle, but were much disappointed at not finding the treasure said to have been 
deposited there by ALEXANDER, from whom it derives its name.—Monteith’s Tour. 
, Jour. Geog. Soc. iii. 6. 
