maddison*s cave. 229 
would be if suspended bj one corner in a lofty 
room. If struck with a stick, a deep hollow 
sound is produced, which echoes through the 
vaults of the cavern. In other parts of this 
room the petrifactions have commenced at the 
bottom, and formed in pillars of different 
heights; some of them reach nearly to the 
roof. If you go to a remote part of this apart- 
ment, and leave a person with a lighted torch 
moving about amidst these ] illars, a thousand 
imaginary forms present themselves, and you 
might almost fancy yourself in the infernal re¬ 
gions, with spectres and monsters on every 
side. The door of this room slopes down gra¬ 
dually from one end to the other, and termi¬ 
nates in a pool of water, which appears to be 
on a level with that at the end of the long 
passage; from their situation it is most pro¬ 
bable that they communicated together. The 
thermometer which I had with me stood, in 
the remotest part of this chamber, at 55°, 
From hence we returned to the mouth of the 
cavern, and on coming into the light it ap¬ 
peared as if we really had been in the infernal 
regions, for our faces, hands, and cloths were 
smutted all over, every part of the cave being 
covered with soot from the smoke of the pine 
torches which are so often carried in. The 
smoke from the pitch pine is particularly 
thick and heavy. Before this cave was much 
10 
