Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 3.djvu/34

 about an hundred feet all is dark, wet and dreary, till we arrive at a steep acclivity formed of a white stalagmite. Surmounting this with some difficulty, the whole interior and ornamental part of the cave comes into view, covered with stalactites disposed in all the grotesque forms which these incrustations so commonly assume. Lively imaginations may here indulge in the discovery of fanciful resemblances, and the concretions have accordingly received names more descriptive of the fancies of the spectators than of their real forms. The dimensions of the fissure are in this place but inconsiderable, the breadth not being more than ten feet, and the height scarcely exceeding twelve: it is not long however before the height suddenly increases to forty feet or more, and a declivity of perhaps thirty feet in length, from the surface of the stalagmitical and cascade-like mount which forms the division between the sparry and the dark part of the fissure, conducts to a pool of water occupying a space of twelve or fifteen feet in length, dividing the cave into an outer and inner portion. The dimensions are here somewhat enlarged, and the height in particular is much more considerable. At a distance of about fifteen or twenty feet more from this pool of water the stalactitical ornaments cease, and shortly after the cave terminates, the whole length from the entrance to the end being about two hundred and fifty feet. However beautiful the interior of the cave, from the white colour and ornamental effects of the stalactites which incrust it, the want of sufficient dimensions materially lessens the interest, which in all other respects it is calculated to excite. At the termination of the stalactitical ornaments there is a dark descent for a few yards, filled with rubbish, the ruins of the roof above, which being here naked as well as accessible, is plainly seen to be one of the trap veins. This vein is here about ten feet wide, which is the general breadth of the cave itself, and it is easy