GIBB — ON CANADIAN CAVERNS. 



167 



precipice forms the floor of the cave, whicli is entered by a large 

 month, is six feet high and twenty feet square ; the roof is nneven 

 and covered with damp mould. 



There is another cave in the same formation, on the opposite, or 

 American side of the gorge, about sixty rods above the ferry, very 

 difficult of access from the steep and precipitous nature of the banks. 

 It goes by the name of Catlin's cave, is fifteen feet wide and ten high, 

 and contains specimens of silicified moss. Neither of these caves are 

 looked upon as objects of interest, their formation I conceive to have 

 taken place at the time when the banks in which they exist were 

 overflowed by the falls. 



The appellation of the Devil's Hole is now given to a notch or 

 indentation, said to be a hundred and eighty-five feet deep, half a 

 mile below the whirlpool, on the right or eastern side of the Magara 

 river. It lays but a few feet from the main road, and can be looked 

 into from above ; it cuts through the Niagara limestone and shale, 

 and Medina sandstone. This has been magnified into a great chasm, 

 surmounted by projecting chfis of rock, but it is not strictly entitled 

 to the name of a cavern. 



There is a great hollow at the foot of the rock, between Goat and 

 Luna Islands, formed by the disintegTating action of the water on 

 the soft Niagara shale forming this part of the precipice, the 

 crumbling fragments of which have been washed away, leaving the 

 true Niagara limestone rock arching overhead fully thirty feet beyond 

 the base, in a similar manner to Table Rock and its continuation 

 under the falls, which thus permits of visitors passing behind the 

 great sheet of falling water in both places. This great hollow, 

 known as Cave of the Winds, whose base is a hundred and thirty 

 feet from the projecting ledge above, is a hundred feet wide. Those 

 who have visited this interesting spot will, in common with myself, 

 no doubt remember the sheet of falling water in front, forming a 

 transparent curtain, dashing the spray with considerable force over 

 every part of the cave, and the appearance of one or more arcs of a 

 rainbow when the sun is shining upon it. The noise and turmoil of 

 the place, the concussion of the atmosphere, and the general disturb- 

 ance around, have appropriately given rise to the name which this 

 cavern enjoys. 



9. — Flower Pot Island, Lake Huron. 



The Isle of Coves is situated to the north of Cape Hurd, which is 

 the extreme point of the peninsula of the Indian Reserves in Lake 

 Huron. To the east of this island is Flower Pot Island, which is 

 chiefly remarkable for the presence of a number of insulated 

 columns resembling flower pots, consisting of large tabular masses 

 placed horizontally one upon the other, being broad at the summit 

 and narrow below. The largest of these is forty-seven feet high, and 

 resembles a jelly-glass, being worn small near its base, and enlarging 

 symmetrically towards the top. Many of them stand on a floor of 



