fingal's cave. 



47 



of the guide, it is necessary to hold fast with the right to a 

 pillar of the wall. As this difficult path is most dangerous in 

 the darkest part of the cave, but few tourists are bold enough 

 to trust themselves to it, for the least false step must infallibly 

 precipitate the adventurous explorer into the seething caldron 

 below. Sometimes a cormorant, fearless of any accident of this 

 kind, has built his nest upon the top of one of the truncated 



Fingal'fl Cave. 



pillars, which form the pavement of the pathway, and betrays 

 by a peevish hissing his ill humour at being disturbed in his 

 solitary retreat by the intrusion of man. 



The narrow path ultimately widens into a more roomy and 

 slanting space formed of the remains of more than a thousand 

 perpendicular truncated shafts. The back wall consists of a 

 range of unequally sized pillars, arranged somewhat like the 

 tubes of an organ. "When the waves rush with tumultuous fury 



