[ i7 ] 
amufed with flights of wild pigeons, and jackdaws 
from the cave below. When he reaches the bottom, 
he fees one fide of this pit fupported by a natural 
arch of rock, above 25 yards wide, under which he 
goes horizontally, and fees two fubterraneous open- 
ings to the right and left. If he turns to the right, 
he makes his way over rocks and (tones, coated with 
fpar in the moil whimfical fnapes, and formed from 
the dropping roof, juft as the dripping of a candle 
would cover a pebble. Thefe knobs take a fine 
poli(h, are tranfparent, and variegated with the 
wildeft affemblage of colouring. The Earl of 
Wandesford had one of them fawn into a (lab, and 
it is as beautiful as a Moco. When I tried thefe 
petrefadtions with an acid, the effervefcence was 
exceflive ftrong j and, as the earth all round is cal- 
careous, and the (tones limeftone, I humbly ap- 
prehend the icicle figures impending from the roof, 
and thefe knobs, are thus formed. The rains, that 
fall on the hill over this cavern, oozing through an 
okery calcareous earth, and the limeftone roof, im- 
bibe or diflolve their fine particles in their defcent ; 
and, as this mixture can only filter through the rock 
exceedingly (lowly, the water hanging on the roof 
is foon diflolved by the air, and the (tony particles 
are left behind. Hence are formed the icicle- (haped 
cones that hang from the roof ; thefe growing per- 
petually longer, have, in many parts of the cave, 
met the knobs from the bottom, and formed a num- 
ber of fantaftic appearances, like the pillars of a Go- 
thic cathedral, organs, erodes, &c. When the rain 
filters pretty faft through the roof, it falls on the 
rocks below, and grows there into knobs and cones, 
\ol. LXIII. D whole 
