1822-1824.] 
DUDLEY CAVERNS. 
79 
subject of bone caves will not call for attention at a later 
period of the narrative, it will not be out of place here 
to translate an account written of them by a scientific 
foreigner, who made Buckland’s acquaintance and was in 
his company when these caves were illuminated. The 
author, who is a German naturalist, 1 thus tells his story :— 
“ These lime caverns, although only the work of art, are 
nearly one English mile in length and about a hundred feet 
high ; the breadth may be about seventy-five feet. But for 
what purpose were such gigantic caverns made by the 
hands of man ? The neighbouring iron works use, as 
a flux in smelting, great quantities of lime, and Lord 
Ward furnishes this requisite from the Dudley Caverns, 
which belong to him. We can form an idea of the 
quantity of lime excavated for this purpose, when we 
learn that the above-mentioned caverns were begun less 
than ten years ago by the excavation of this stone, and 
(according to several estimates given to me) the owner 
draws from these lime-pits a yearly income of from iG fbooo 
to £ 20,000. Another, and a still larger, cave, begun in the 
same way, is even now becoming profitable. Lord Ward, 
on the occasion of the meeting of the British Association 
at Birmingham 1839 (under the Presidentship of the Rev. 
W. Vernon Harcourt), for the convenience of the company, 
had this vast subterranean vault most brilliantly lighted. 
It must have cost him many hundreds of pounds, for the 
number of lights erected was almost incredible, and in 
addition, at short intervals throughout the whole extent 
of the cave, artificial lights were burning in galleries hewn 
out for the purpose. 
“ In order to reach the entrance, we descended from a 
considerable height through an excavation, and boats were 
ready to take us along the canal leading to the interior. 
1 “ Mittheilungen aus dem Reisetagebuche eines deutschen Natur- 
forschers Eng.” (Basel, 1842.) 
