128 STIBTBRRANEOUS WOND2RS. 
vation IS divided into several large halls, and othet. 
ments. The vast number of pillars by which it 
mented give it a superb appearance, and are 
beautiful : they are as white as snow, and have » 
transparent lustre. Tl»e bottom is of the same 
insomuch that the visitor may fancy he is walking # 
the ruins of some stately palace, amid noble 
columns, partly mutilated, and partly entire, 
icicles are every where seen suspended from die ^ 
some places resembling wax tapers, which, from 
diant whiteness, appear extremely beautiful. All 
venience here arises from the inequality of the ^ 
which may make the spectator stumble while he ^ 
templating the beauties above .and around him. ^ '' 
In the neighbourhood of the village of Szch ' 
Upper Hungary, there is a very singular excavation' y 
adjacent country is hilly, and abounds with woodSi 
being cold and pencti'ating. The entrance into tliis t j r 
fronting the south, is upwards of one hundred > 
height, and forty-eight in breadth, consequently S'-’, yOji 
wide to receive the south wind, which here generaUy^^rf 
with great violence ; but the, subterraneous passage®’ <(<' 
consist entirely of solid rock, winding round, strete 
farther to the south. As far as they have been exl^^ | 
their height has been found to be three hundred 
their breadth about one hundred and fifty. The M 
pliicable singularity, however, is, that in the midst o ^ f 
ter the air in this cavern is warm ; and when the 
the sun without is scarcely supportable, the cold J 
not only very piercing, but so intense, that the 
covered with icicles of the size of a large cask) 
spreading into ramifications, form very grotesque 
When the snowmelts in spring, the inside ot ^’^pji'’i 
where its surface is exposed to the south 
pellucid water, which congeals instantly as it ‘*[^*.[1 
tints forms the above icicles : even the -water ^ 
from them on the sandy ground, freezes in an 
is observed, that the greater the heat is without, u’ (A 
7 --- 7 O ( 
part of this cavern is covered with ice. In autun 
tlie nights become cold, the ice begins to t" 
much ilia^ when the winter gets in, it is no 
