Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/173

132 Strange to say, he was not killed, nor materially hurt; and his companions having procured ropes from the neighbouring Lighthouse got him out, frightened, and it may be charitably hoped, somewhat instructed by the adventure. Whether the name of Keefe's, Keeve's or Cave's Hole, as it it variously written, was derived from this involuntary explorer, I could not learn.

The sea-cliffs all about this part are highly picturesque and romantic. The strata of stone are quite horizontal, resembling courses of masonry, and the action of the waves and weather in the lapse of ages has worn away the softer portions, producing a succession of caverns, supported by uncouth pillars, with projecting groins and buttresses. Sometimes these caves run into the solid land; at others they open out again upon the sea at a little distance, making long corridors, or short series of arched vaults, and, occasionally, as in the example of Keeve's Hole just described, the yielding of the roof makes a skylight in the interior; so that the various effects of the light struggling with the gloom in these caves are the most picturesque imaginable.

The sense of grandeur too is greatly augmented by the perpetual moaning and roaring of the sea, which breaks upon the foot of the rocks, and as it rolls inward reverberates from the interior;—a sound indefinitely prolonged along the sinuous coast.

A slender thread of water falling from the top of