336 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
tlie liead is t hat it is all hollow — a vast cavern — with an opening seaward, and 
another, called the Blow Hole, abont the size of a linger, on the land, which 
makes up for its want of size by its noise, which is very great, and most jiecii- 
liar on a quiet day, when there is a ground swell. A curious and unearthly 
sound it is, like that of a mighty rushing wind proceeding from the interior of 
the earth, as if all the gnomes of the Hartz Mountains were busy at their 
work. The cause of the noise is this : a heavy sea breaks into the cave, 
driving before it all the air into one corner, where the orifice is situated ; for, 
by listening at the hole, you can mark the apjiroach of each wave by the 
increasing volume of an*. Lelaud again mentions this. ' Ther is also a won- 
derfulle hole at the Poynt of Worine Heade, but few dare enter into it, and 
men fable there that a Dore witheiu the spatious Hole hathe be sene withe 
great nayles on it — but that that is spoken of water rciuiinge under the 
grounde is more lykely.' " The cave, as far as is known, has been entered only 
once, and that was on an extraordiniu'ily calm day, when Beynon rowed a party 
of visitors into it. He had, however, very vague notions respecting its size, 
and his prevailing feeling seemed to have been satisfaction at getting safe out 
again. 
Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers. By Members of the Alpine Club. Loudon : 
Longman and Co. 1859. 
In the charming volume before us there are many scenes, incidents, and 
descriptions which might delight general readers more than those particidars 
which we shall here set prominently before our own. We have properly to 
deal with speciaUties, and however tempting even to ourselves the digression 
into the most flowery paths, the pathways of science are the routes we are 
conscientiously compelled to follow. 
The opening chapter, "Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers," describes to us the 
passage of the Fenetre de Salena by a party of the Alpine Club, witli the dan- 
gers and difficulties of its accomplishment, and their accompanying rewards of 
wild and magnificent scenery, and those wonderful atmospheric beautifieations 
which seem to be locked up and cherished in those caskets of Nature's i-ecesses 
to which only the most daring can reach the key. 
Amongst the wild scenes in this expedition, we have a vivid portraiture of 
a night encampment on the inhospitable slopes of the alpine heights of Salena, 
where the party halted within a few yards of a glacier-torrent, whence, when the 
moining dawned, they gazed out "upon a scene of savage grandeur, for wild- 
ness and desolation almost without a rival, even among tlie Alps, of wliich the 
sole components are crag, precipice, snow, ice, and aiguille, combined in every 
variety of stern and awful grandeur." Prom this " citadel of winter," a short 
but arduous walk in the earliest morn brought the mountain-travellers into a 
" garden of summer," the grass beneath their feet fresh and moist, and ahnost 
dazzling to the eye with the briUiaucy of its emerald green ; hardly a stone's 
throw from them, " the rich valley of Perret stretched out on either hand, 
studded with chalets, dotted with sheep and cattle, sparlding with cultivation, 
^ instinct with life and luxuriant beauty. The dark masses of the great chaui 
bounding the valley on the soidh were clothed with wood and herbage nearly 
to their sumimts, and a thin veil of delicate haze which hung upon them, 
sliowed how great was already the power of the autumn sun." Even the 
glaf'ier-torrents they had so lately left, now flowed behind a rising ground, 
so that not an object remained in sight to remind them of the desolate region 
of eternal frost they had so lately quitted. 
The second cha|jter, by Professor Tyndall, gives an account of his ascent of 
the Col du (Jeant, in July, 18.') 7, and, coinmencing with a not very satisfactory 
i 
