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mi^bt coll up In the water (let it have been ever fb» 
fhallow), and as the reft, beyond the real depth of the 
chafm, might coil up either in the great or little, 
cave- 
Again, the many craggs on eacli fide the firft ftaaft, 
(and probably alio on each fide the fecond) muft 
retard any ftone in its fall j and by that means will 
account tor the length of time a body takes in de— 
fcending ; which muft be a great deal longer than 
if it fell in open fpace : and hence Dr. Short (who^ 
has given us a calculation, formed from the time of 
the defcent of heavy bodies, according to the New- 
tonian principles of gravitation)* was mifled to con-- 
elude, though very ingenioufly, that this chafm was. 
422 yards deep. 
And laftlyj the falling of ftones into the water,, at; 
the bottom of the fecond fliaft, and the increafe of 
the found made thereby, partly from the reverbe- 
ration at the fidcs of the great cavern, and partly 
from the form of the upper fhaft (which is not very 
unlike that of a fpeaking trumpet, fee fig. I.) might 
cccalion that aftonifhing noife, which is faid to have 
been heard at various times formerly, on throwing 
ftones into this gulph j but which has not been heard 
of late years,, in a manner at all agreeable to old 
reports. 
And now, Sir, I cannot forbear to take notice, that 
as both Mr. Lloyd, and alio the miner’s wife, from 
whom I had my information, mentioned there being 
water at the bottom of the fecond llialt, it ap- 
pears highly probable, tliat this water is the conti- 
nuation of a fubterraneous river ; and indeed of that 
very river which runs out of the mouth of the great 
cavern. 
