Part 53

"The impatience which every body felt to see the wonders we have heard so largely described, prevented our morning's rest; every one was up and in motion before the break of day, and with the first light arrived at the south-west part of the island, the seat of the most remarkable pillars. We were no sooner arrived at this place, than we were struck with a scene of magnificence which exceeded our expectation, though formed as we thought upon the most sanguine foundations. The whole of that end of the island is supported by ranges of natural pillars, mostly above fifty feet high, standing in natural colonnades, according as the bays or points of land formed themselves, upon a firm basis of solid shapeless masses of rock. In a short time we arrived at the mouth of the cave, the most magnificent, I suppose, that has ever been described by travellers.

"The mind can hardly form an idea of any thing more magnificent than such a space, supported on each side by ranges of columns, and roofed by the bottoms of those from which they have been broken, in order to form it, between the angles of which a yellow stalagmitic matter has exuded; this serves to define the angles precisely, and at the same time vary the colour with a great deal of elegance, and, to render it still more agreeable, the whole is lighted from without; so that the farthest extremity is very plainly seen from the outside, and the air within, being agitated by the flux and reflux of the tides, is perfectly dry and wholesome, entirely free from the vapours with which natural caverns in general abound."

The following description of the same place by Mr. Troil, is also worthy of our notice:--

"How splendid (says this prelate) do the porticos of the ancients appear in our eyes, from the ostentatious magnificence of the descriptions we have received of them! and with what admiration are we seized, on seeing even the colonnades of our modern edifices! but when we behold the cave of Fingal, formed by nature in the isle of Staffa, it is no longer possible to make a comparison, and we are forced to acknowledge that this piece of architecture, executed by nature, far surpasses that of the Louvre, that of St. Peter at Rome, and even what remains of Palmira and Pestum, and all that the genius, the taste, and the luxury of the Greeks, were ever capable of inventing."--_Letters on Iceland._

Such also was the impression made by the cave of Fingal, on Sir Joseph Banks, and on the Bishop of Linckoeping.--

"I have seen many ancient volcanoes, and have given descriptions of several superb basaltic causeways and delightful caverns in the midst of lavas; but I have never found any thing which comes near this, or can bear any comparison with it, either for the admirable regularity of the columns, the height of the arch, the situation, the forms, the elegance of this production of nature, or for its resemblance to the masterpieces of art, though this had no share in its construction. It is therefore not at all surprising that tradition should have made it the abode of a hero.

"This amazing monument of nature is thirty-five feet wide at the entrance, fifty-six feet high, and a hundred and forty feet long.

"The upright columns which compose the frontispiece, are of the most perfect regularity. Their height, to the beginning of the curvature, is forty-five feet.

"The arch is composed of two unequal segments of a circle, which form a sort of natural pediment.

"The mass which crowns, or rather which forms the roof, is twenty feet thick in the lowest part. It consists of small prisms, more or less regular, inclining in all directions, closely united and cemented underneath, and in the joints, with a yellowish white calcareous matter, and some zeolitic infiltrations, which give this fine ceiling the appearance of mozaic work.

"The sea reaches to the very extremity of the cave. It is fifteen feet deep at the mouth; and its waves, incessantly agitated, beat with great noise against the bottom and walls of the cavern, and every where break into foam. The light also penetrates through its whole length, diminishing gradually inwards, and exhibiting the most wonderful varieties of colour.

"The right side of the entrance presents, on its exterior part, a vast amphitheatre, formed of different ranges of large truncated prisms, the top of which may be easily walked on. Several of these prisms are jointed, that is, concave on the one side, and convex on the other; and some of them are divided by simple transverse intersections.

"These prisms, consisting of a very durable and pure black basaltes, are from one to three feet in diameter. Their forms are triangular, tetrapedral, pentagonal, and hexagonal; and some of them have seven or eight sides. I saw several large prisms, on the truncatures of which are distinctly traced the outlines of a number of smaller prisms; that is, these prisms are formed of a basaltes, which has a tendency to subdivide itself likewise into prisms. I had before observed the same phenomenon in the basaltic prisms of Vivarais.

"The cave can be entered only by proceeding along the platform on the right side, which I have mentioned above. But the way grows very narrow and difficult as it advances; for this sort of interior gallery, raised about fifteen feet above the level of the sea, is formed entirely of truncated perpendicular prisms of a greater or less height, between which considerable address is necessary to choose one's steps, the passages being so strait and so slippery, owing to the droppings from the roof, that I took the very prudent resolution, suggested by our two guides, to proceed barefooted, and take advantage of their assistance, especially in a particular place, where I had room only to plant one foot, whilst I clung with my right hand to a large prism to support myself, and held the hand of one of the guides by the other. This difficult operation took place at the darkest part of the cave; and one half of the body was at the time suspended over an abyss, where the sea dashed itself into a cloud of foam.

"I was desirous of penetrating to the farthest extremity, and I accomplished my purpose, though not without considerable difficulty and danger. I more than once found my attention distracted from the observations which I was happy to have an opportunity of making, to the thought of how I should get back again.

"As I drew near to the bottom of the cave, the bold balcony, on which I walked, expanded into a large sloping space, composed of thousands of broken vertical columns. The bottom was bounded by a compact range of pillars of an unequal height, and resembling the front of an organ."

It is worthy of remark, that at the time when Mr. Troil visited the cave, the sea, by one of those uncommon chances which do not happen once in ten years, was so calm, that it permitted him to enter with a boat.

"At the very bottom of the cave, (says he,) and a little above the surface of the water, there is a kind of small cave, which sends forth a very agreeable noise every time that the water rushes into it."--_Letters on Iceland._

"As the sea was far from being completely still when I visited it, I heard a noise of a very different nature every time that the waves, in a rapid succession, broke against its bottom. This sound resembled that which is produced by striking a large hard body with great weight and force against another hard body in a subterraneous cavity. The shock was so violent, that it was heard at some distance, and the whole cavern seemed to shake with it. Being close to the place whence the sound issued, and where the water is not so deep, upon the retreat of the wave, I endeavoured to discover the cause of this terrible collision. I soon observed, that, a little below the basis which supported the organ-fronted colonnade, there was an aperture which formed the outlet of a hollow, or perhaps a small cave. It was impossible to penetrate into this cavity; but it may be presumed that the tremendous noise was occasioned by a broken rock, driven by the violent impetuosity of the surge against its sides. By the boiling motion of the water, however, in the same place, it is evident that there are several other small passages, through which it issues, after rushing into the principal aperture in a mass. It is therefore not impossible, when the sea is not sufficiently agitated to put the imprisoned rock in motion, that the air, strongly compressed by the weight of the water, which is in incessant fluctuation, should, on rushing out by the small lateral passages, produce a particularly strange sound. It might then be truly regarded as an organ created by the hand of nature; and this circumstance would fully explain why the ancient and real name of this cave, in the Erse language, is, _The Melodious Cave_."

Sir Joseph Banks, in the description which he has given us of the cave of Staffa, says, that "between the angles a yellow stalagmitic matter has exuded, which seemed to define the angles precisely." That is true; but the learned naturalist has not told us the nature of this yellowish matter.

Mr. Troil mentions it also: he says, that the "colour of the columns is a dark gray, but that the joints are filled with a quartzose stalactites, which distinctly marks the separation of the columns, and which, by the variety of its tints, has the most agreeable effect on the eye. On breaking off several pieces of it, which it is not very easy to do, owing to the height of the vault, I found that it was nothing but a calcareous matter, coloured by the decomposition of the iron of the lava, and intermixed with a little argillaceous earth. This stalactites has also very little adhesion, and is, in general, of an earthy nature. In several of the prisms I found some globules of zeolites, but in very small quantity. I also broke off from between two prisms, which were so apart as to admit of introducing my hand, an incrustation in which the white and transparent zeolites was formed into very perfect small cubical crystals, several of which were coloured red by the ferruginous lime arising from the decomposition of the lava. But I must repeat, that zeolites is very rare in this cave, and having myself broken off all the specimens that I was able to see, I doubt whether those who may visit the place after me will find any quantity of it."

Dimensions of the Cave of Fingal.--Breadth of the entrance, taken at the mouth and at the level of the sea, thirty-five feet; height, from the level of the sea to the pitch of the arch, fifty-six feet; depth of the sea, opposite to the entrance, and twelve feet distant from it, at noon of the 27th of September, fifteen feet; thickness of the roof, measured from the pitch of the arch without to its highest part, twenty feet; interior length of the cave from the entrance to the extremity, one hundred and forty feet; height of the tallest columns on the right side of the entrance, forty-five feet; depth of the sea in the interior part of the cave, ten feet nine inches, in some places eight feet, and towards the bottom somewhat less.

CAVE NEAR MEXICO.--A traveller of credit gives us an account, in the Philosophical Transactions, of a remarkable cave, some leagues to the north-west of Mexico, gilded all over with a sort of leaf-gold, which had deluded many Spaniards by its promising colour, but they could never reduce it into a body, either by quicksilver or fusion. This traveller went thither one morning with an Indian for his guide, and found its situation was pretty high, and in a place very proper for the generation of metals.

As he entered into it, the light of the candle soon discovered on all sides, but especially over his head, a glittering canopy of these mineral leaves, at which he greedily snatching, there fell down a great lump of sand, that not only put out his candle, but almost blinded him, and calling aloud to his Indian, who stood at the entrance of the cave, as being afraid of spirits and hobgoblins, it occasioned such thundering and redoubled echoes, that the poor fellow, imagining he had been wrestling with some infernal ghosts, soon quitted his station, and thereby left a free passage for some rays of light to enter, and serve him for a better guide. The traveller's sight was somewhat affected by the corrosive acrimony of the mineral dust; but having relighted his candle, he proceeded in the cave, heaped together a quantity of the mineral mixed with sand, and scraped off from the surface of the earth some of the glittering leaves, none of which exceeded the breadth of a man's nail, but with the least touch were divided into many lesser spangles, and with a little rubbing they left his hand gilded all over.

We must not neglect to notice THE NITRE CAVES OF MISSOURI.--"On the banks of the Merrimack and the Gasconade are found numerous caves, which yield an earth impregnated largely with nitre, which is procured from it by lixiviation. On the head of Current's river are also found several caves from which nitre is procured, the principal of which is Ashley's cave, or Cave Creek, about eighty miles south-west of Potosi. This is one of those stupendous and extensive caverns, that cannot be viewed without exciting our wonder and astonishment, which is increased by beholding those complete works for the manufacture of nitre, situated in its interior.

"The native nitrate of potash is found in beautiful white crystals, investing the fissures of the limestone rock which forms the walls of this cave; and several of those in its vicinity exhibit the same phenomenon."--_Schoolcroft, on the Lead Mines of Missouri._

OKEY HOLE.--This is a famous natural cavern of England, on the south side of Mendip hills. The entrance is in the fall of those hills, which is beset all about with rocks, and there is near it a precipitate descent of twelve fathoms deep, at the bottom of which there continually issues from the rocks a considerable current of water. The naked rocks above the entrance are about thirty fathoms high, and the whole ascent of the hill above, which is very steep, is about a mile. The entrance into this vault is at first upon a level, but advancing farther, the way is rocky and uneven, sometimes ascending, and sometimes descending.

The roof of this cavern, in the highest part, is about eight fathoms from the ground, but in many places it is so low, that one must stoop to get along. The breadth is not less various than the height, for in some places it is five or six fathoms wide, and in others not more than one or two. It is in length about two hundred yards. At the farthest part of the cavern there is a stream of water, large enough to drive a mill, which passes all along one side of the cavern, and at length slides down about six or eight fathoms among the rocks, and, finding its way through the clefts, falls into the valley beneath. The river within the cavern is well stored with eels, and has some trouts. In dry summers, a great number of frogs are seen all along this cavern, even to the farthest part of it; and on the roof are vast numbers of bats.

From Okey Hole we proceed to BORROWDALE,--which is a most romantic valley among the Derwent-Water Fells, in the county of Cumberland. These fells or hills are some of the loftiest in England, and it is in one of them that the black lead, or wadd, is found, from which all parts of the world are supplied. The mines are opened once in seven years, and when a sufficient quantity of this valuable and singular mineral is taken out, they are carefully closed again. In travelling among these mountains, the idea that presents itself to the astonished spectator, is that of the earth having been agitated like the ocean in a storm; the hills appear like waves, one behind another, and were it not for the abrupt and sudden scarps, and the immense masses of rugged rocks, that give the idea of fixedness and stability, the fancy might be bewildered so far as to imagine they were in a state of undulation, and ready to mingle with each other.

Borrowdale is watered by the clearest brooks, which, precipitated from the hills, form many beautiful waterfalls, and then meet together in the dale in one large stream, and pass out of it under the name of Borrowdale Beck, when they spread out into an extensive lake, forming many beautiful islands; the lake is called Derwent-water, or Keswick Lake. Borrowdale is four miles from Keswick, in passing from which, the traveller has the lake on his left hand, and stupendous rocky precipices on the other; with huge stones, or rugged masses of rock, which have tumbled from above, perhaps rent from the mountain by the expansion of the water in its crevices or fissures, which, congealing into ice, occasions the scattered fragments that lie in his way. As he approaches the dale, he sees the shelves, or ledges of the rocks, covered with herbage, shrubs, and trees, and villages and farms rise in his view; the larger cattle are seen feeding in the lower grounds, and the sheep in very large flocks upon the mountains.

We shall close this division with an account of THE NEEDLE'S EYE.--This name is given to a subterraneous passage on the coast of Banffshire, one hundred and fifty yards long from sea to sea, but through which a man can with difficulty creep. At the north end of it is a cave, twenty feet high, thirty broad, and one hundred and fifty long, containing a space of ninety thousand cubic feet. The whole is supported by immense columns of rocks, is exceedingly grand, and has a surprisingly fine effect on the spectator, after creeping through the narrow passage.

CHAP. XLIII.

CURIOSITIES RESPECTING MINES.

_Diamond Mine in the Brazils--Mines of Peru--Volcanic Eruptions of Mud and Salt--Pitch Wells--Visit to a Coal-Pit._

Through dark retreats pursue the winding ore, Search Nature's depths, and view her boundless store; The secret cause in tuneful numbers sing, How metals first were fram'd, and whence they spring Whether the active sun, with chemic flames, Through porous earth transmits its genial beams; With heat impregnating the womb of night, The offspring shines with its paternal light: Or whether, urged by subterraneous flames, The earth ferments, and flows in liquid streams Purg'd from their dross, the nobler parts refine, Receive new forms, and with fresh beauties shine: Or whether by creation first they sprung, When yet unpois'd the world's great fabric hung: Metals the basis of the earth were made, The bars on which its fix'd foundations laid; All second causes they disdain to own, And from th' Almighty's fiat sprung alone. _Yalden._

Description of a DIAMOND MINE on the river Tigitonhonha, in the Brazilian territory; by Mr. Mawe.

"I could not (says the writer) resist the favourable opportunity now offered me of gratifying the curiosity which had so long occupied my mind, by visiting the diamond mines, in company with the principal officer in the administration of them, who was therefore qualified to furnish me with the amplest information. A fine horse was waiting for me at the door, and I rode up to the house of the governor, who introduced me to his amiable lady, daughters, and family, with whom I had the honour to take breakfast. Several officers of the diamond establishment arrived on horseback to accompany us, their presence being required on this occasion.

"Having arrived at the place, I remained here five days, during which I was occupied in viewing and examining various parts of the works, of which I shall here attempt to give a general description.

"The river Tigitonhonha is formed by a number of streams, and is as wide as the Thames at Windsor, and in general from three to nine feet deep. The part now in working is a curve or elbow, from which the current is diverted into a canal cut across the tongue of land round which it winds, the river being stopped, just below the head of the canal, by an embankment formed of several thousand bags of sand. This is a work of considerable magnitude, and requires the co-operation of all the negroes to complete it; for the river being wide and not very shallow, and also occasionally subject to overflow, they have to make the embankment so strong as to resist the pressure of the water, admitting it to rise four or five feet.

"The deeper parts of the channel of the river are laid dry by means of large caissons or chain-pumps, worked by a water-wheel. The mud is then carried off, and the cascalhao is dug up, and removed to a convenient place for washing. This labour was, until lately, performed by the negroes, who carried the cascalhao in gamellas on their heads; but Mr. Camara has formed two inclined planes, about one hundred yards in length, along which carts are drawn by a large water-wheel, divided into two parts, the ladles or buckets of which are so constructed, that the rotary motion may be altered by changing the current of water from one side to the other; this wheel, by means of a rope made of untanned hides, works two carts, one of which descends empty on one inclined plane, while the other, loaded with cascalhao, is drawn to the top of the other, where it falls into a cradle, empties itself, and descends in its turn. At a work called Canjeca, formerly of great importance, about a mile up the river on the opposite side, there are three cylindrical engines for drawing the cascalhao, like those used in the mining country of Derbyshire, and also railways over some uneven ground. This was the first and only machinery of consequence, which I saw in the diamond district, and there appear many obstacles to the general introduction of it. Timber, when wanted of large size, has to be fetched a distance of one hundred miles, at a very heavy expense; there are few persons competent to the construction of machines, and the workmen dislike to make them, fearing that this is only part of a general plan for suspending manual labour.

"The stratum of cascalhao consists of the same materials with that in the gold district. On many parts, by the edge of the river, are large conglomerate masses of rounded pebbles cemented by oxide of iron, which sometimes envelop gold and diamonds. They calculate on getting as much cascalhao in the dry season, as will occupy all their hands during the months which are more subject to rain. When carried from the bed of the river whence it is dug, it is laid in heaps, containing apparently from five to fifteen tons each.