NOTES AND QUERIES. 



157 



volunteer regiment used to exercise upon it. It would seem to be the residuum 

 left after the bursting out of the waters, but there is no appearance of a " road " 

 on the western side of the valley, from which I came to this conclusion — that, 

 during the time of the existence of the lake, the prevailing winds must have been 

 what they are at this day in that county, viz., VV. and S.W. ; because these 

 winds alone could have caused those waves which have left their traces on the 

 east side. As I do not wish to trespass at length on your columns, I will 

 only add that a visit to this locality will afford much interest to the geologist. 

 I have sent these remarks, hoping it may be the means of inducing some one, 

 possessed of more time and a fuller acquaintance with geology than myself, to 

 work out more effectively the problem offered in this interesting locality. — Extract 

 of Letter from Rev. Eric Findlater, of Loch Earn Head, by Crieff. 



Notice of a Stalactite Cave at Chedder Cliffs, by Mr. J. Jamteson. 



" The following description of a Stalactite Cave at Chedder Cliffs, Somerset, will, I 

 think, be found interesting : and as similar contributions describing the localities 

 where remarkable phenomena may be seen and admired will, in some measure, 

 enhance the value of your Geological Magazine, it Avill afford mc pleasure if you 

 should think this worthy of insertion. 



"Yours obediently, 



" J. J. 



" Arlington Square, London, 5th March, 1858." 



The cliffs and x-ocks must picturesquely arranged on each side of the Banwell- 

 road, about three miles from Chedder, will alone amply compensate for the time 

 and trouble of the journey to view them ; but this locality possesses an additional 

 attraction, in a most wonderful Stalactite Cave, discovered accidentally by 

 Mr. George Cox, on his own property, in the valley leading to the cliffs, where 

 he was excavating the limestone to form a stable. It has since been made perfectly 

 easy of access. The beauty of the cave and its formation — the work of ages and 

 of centuries hardly to be numbered — make it one of the most wonderful objects 

 ■which can be contemplated. The strange variety of the incrustations, with the en- 

 chanting reflections of the scenery in the beautiful natural basins of pure water ; 

 the pillars, the festoons, pendant from the roofs of the different alcoves, brin"- the 

 fancies of enchantment into real existence. The Avater still continues dropping 

 from many capillary openings in the roof, and, in addition to its forming stalactitic 

 curtains and festoons from the dome of the cave, gives rise also to equally beautiful 

 concretions of stalagmite on the floor beneatii, whence pillars of a substance as 

 semi-transparent and as white as statuary marble, formed by calcareous deposits 

 from the continuous droppings from above, are seen gradually risir^g to meet the 

 elegant pendants from the roof. 



The following letter of the late Rev. W. D. Conybeare, cannot fail to be 

 perused with much interest, in connection with this notice; — 



Stalactite Cavern, Chedder, 1st July, 1843. 

 "Dear Buckland, — Happening to be visiting a friend, with my youngest 

 boy, I chose to go round from Banwell hither, to show him Chedder Cliffs, 

 and visited this cavern, more to show it to him than expecting to see any- 

 thing myself ; but I think it ought to be better known. You must come and 

 see it yourself; it is really the only graceful cave fit for ladies to visit which we 

 have ; the only thing I ever saw that at all realizes my ideas of Antiparos. It has 

 one main porch and three or four lateral branches, narrow fissures, about ten or 

 twelve feet broad, and some thirty or forty feet high, vested and draped with the 

 most fantastic and beautiful marble stalactite one can conceive. The floor, when 

 discovered, was a mass of stalagmite, covering rounded gravel of the mountain lime- 

 stone, filling up about ten feet of the bottom. The owner has cut galleries through 

 this stalagmite, and he is one of the best showmen of a cave I ever saw, lighting 

 the whole with a group of candles on a tin plate, which he raises to the roof, or 

 thrusts through the narrow fissures, so as to exhibit the whole to perfection. 

 Make this known as the prettiest thing in the island, and come and see it. 



"W. D. Conybeare." 



