Description of a JVatural Tunnel, 349 



a manner to pass thence in a continuous curve quite to his rear, 

 and towering in a very impressive manner, above his head. On 

 his right, a sapling growth of buck-eye, poplar, linden, &c., 

 skirting the margin of the creek, and extending obliquely to the 

 right, and upward through a narrow, abrupt ravine, to the sum- 

 mit of the ridge, which is here, and elsewhere, crowned with a 

 timber growth of pines, cedars, oaks, and shrubbery of various 

 kinds. On his extreme right, is a gigantic cliff lifting itself up 

 perpendicularly from the water's edge, to the height of about 

 three hundred feet, and accompanied by an insulated cliff, called 

 the chimney, of about the same altitude, rising in the form of a 

 turret, at least sixty feet above its basement, which is a portion 

 of the imposing cliff just before mentioned. 



Desirous of illustrating this paper by a front view of the natu- 

 ral tunnel where the creek issues from it, I have, with the as- 

 sistance of a particular friend in this city — to whom I am in- 

 debted for the accompanying drawing* — been enabled to furnish 

 a sketch which very faithfully represents some of the appear- 

 ances I have described. The embellishments last mentioned, how- 

 ever, viz. the chimney and its accompaniments, could not be 

 comprised in the landscape. 



In order to give a more full description of the magnificent 

 spectacle which forms the subject of this paper, 1 shall transcribe 

 some of the minutes taken from my private notes, whilst on the 

 ground ; but first I shall give an extract from a letter addressed to 

 me by my friend P. C. Johnston, Esq. of Abingdon, in the adjoin- 

 ing county to Scott, a gentleman well acquainted with this inter- 

 esting locality. 



" The rocks through which Stock creek flows, are a light blue 

 and gray limestone, of a subcrystalline character ; the strata are 

 nearly horizontal ; and this arrangement of the strata is obvious 

 for several miles north-eastwardly ; but in every other direction, 

 very near the bridge, (natural tunnel,) they have the dip usual 

 in the country to the S. E. at an angle generally of from 30° to 

 50°. This tunnel is near what I have believed to be the N. W. 

 boundary of the transition formation, a little within it. I have 

 not been able to discover any organic remains in the limestone 

 there, or in the neighbourhood. On the little projections of the 

 rock which occur on the walls, near the lower (S.) end of the 



* See Plate X 



