FEKNS AND MOSSES. 57 
fall from the roof. Unlike caves in general, which arc 
often, snaded with high trees, and having clear streams 
flowing near, of which the gentle murmur is blended with 
the song of birds and whisperings of winds among the 
branches, Argol's Cave looked damp and cheerless, and was 
associated in our minds with Druidic superstitions and 
fallen cromlechs. The naturalist who ventured unad- 
visedly into that same cavern might have started back with 
some degree of apprehension ; for out of its recesses gleamed 
forth a softened and beautiful light, enhanced by the twi- 
light gloom that brooded within. This phenomenon, con- 
nected with peculiarity of structure, has its counterpart 
LUMINOUS INMATE OF AKGOL S CAVE. SMALL 
HIGHLY MAGNIFIED. 
among birds and insects, in the exquisite plumage of the 
humming-bird, and the burnished wings of the opal beetle; 
among stones, in the Labrador feldspar, or the precious opal 
of Hungary. The light thus wondrously gleaming from off 
the humid soil resembled a carpet of burnished gold, and 
was seen to the greatest advantage at the distance of a few 
yards, more especially when beheld from a favourable angle 
of vision. On near inspection, a variety of closely-scattered 
stones formed the basement of Argol's cave ; they were 
covered with filmy irregular network, scarcely perceptible, 
from extreme delicacy of texture ; and the light which 
served to betray the lonely, lovely inmate of the cavern, 
