The wonders of the world

“At three o’clock, a rolling on the roofs of the houses indicated a fall of stones, which soon thickened, and at length descended in a rain of intermingled fire, which threatened at once the fate of Pompeii or Herculaneum. The crackling coruscations from the crater at this period exceeded all that had yet passed. The eyes were struck with a momentary blindness, and the ears stunned with a confusion of sounds. People sought shelter in the cellars, under rocks, or anywhere, for every place was nearly the same; and the miserable negroes, flying from their huts, were knocked down, or wounded, and many killed in the open air. Several houses were set on fire. The estates situated in the immediate vicinity, seemed doomed to destruction. Had the stones which fell been heavy in proportion to their size, not a living creature could have escaped death: these, having undergone a thorough fusion, were divested of their natural gravity, and fell almost as light as pumice, though in some places as large as a man’s head. This dreadful rain of stones and fire lasted upward of an hour, and was again succeeded by cinders from three till six o’clock in the morning. Earthquake followed earthquake, almost momentarily; or rather the whole of this part of the island was in a state of continued oscillation; not agitated by shocks vertical or horizontal; but undulated like water shaken in a bowl.

“The break of day, if such it could be called, was truly terrific. Utter darkness prevailed till eight o’clock, and the birth of May dawned like the day of judgment: a chaotic gloom enveloped the mountain, and an impenetrable haze hung over the sea, with black sluggish clouds of a sulphureous cast. The whole island was covered with cinders, scoriæ, and broken masses of volcanic matter. It was not until the afternoon, that the muttering noise of the mountain sunk gradually into a solemn yet suspicious silence. Such are the particulars of this sublime and tremendous scene, from its commencement to its catastrophe.”

PETER BOTTE’S MOUNTAIN.

The singular peak represented in the cut, is in the island of Mauritius, which lies in the Indian ocean, east of Madagascar. The island is about one hundred and forty miles in circuit, and produces rice, sugar, cloves, indigo, and various tropical fruits. It was first settled by the Dutch; but the French gained possession of it in 1715. In 1810, the English took it, and it is still held by them. The island seems to have been thrown up from the sea by volcanic eruptions, as it everywhere bears marks of convulsions by inward fires. In its central parts are wild craggy mountains, the summits of which are always covered with snow. And among these is the peak represented in the cut, which is eighteen hundred feet in hight, and surrounded by dismal ravines. It is called Peter Botte’s mountain, from a legend that a man of that name once ascended to the top. The general belief, however, is, that it was never ascended till the year 1832, when the top of it was reached by a party under Capt. Lloyd, an English engineer. The exploit was one of the most hazardous, and the account of it is almost painful to the reader, from the evident peril of the adventurers.

KILAUEA.

While on the subject of wonderful volcanoes, we must not omit to notice one that has been called the “Niagara of volcanoes,” and the “king of volcanoes,” viz., Kilauea, the great volcano of the Sandwich islands, which is on the island of Hawaii, about thirty miles from Hilo bay. One of the missionaries, from whom we have the account, started to visit it on horseback; but the way being rough and the animal unshod, he severely felt the inconvenience of the lava, became discouraged, and moved so slowly, that he was given up, and the missionary and his associate proceeded on foot.

“Toward evening,” he continues, “we reached Olaa, an inland settlement; and the next day, before noon, had arrived at an elevation of some four thousand feet, at a distance of twenty miles from Hilo bay.

“Approaching the great crater of Kilauea, we had a fine view of the magnificent dome of Mauna Loa, stretching on some twenty miles beyond it, and rising above it to the lofty hight of ten thousand feet. Evidences of existing volcanic agency multiplied around us; steam, gas and smoke, issued from the sulphur banks on the north-east and south-east sides of the crater, and here and there, from deep and extended fissures connected with the fiery subterranean agency; and as we passed circumspectly along the apparently depressed plain that surrounds the crater, we observed an immense volume of smoke and vapor ascending from the midst of it. At the same time, and from the same source, various unusual sounds, not easily described or explained, fell with increasing intensity on the ear. Then the angry abyss, the fabled habitation and throne of Pele, the great idol goddess whom the Hawaiians formerly worshiped, opened before us.

“Coming near to the rim, I fell upon my hands and knees, awe-struck, and crept cautiously to the rocky brink; for with all my natural and acquired courage, I was unwilling at once to walk up to the giddy verge, and look down upon the noisy, fiery gulf beneath my feet. Shortly, however, I was able to stand very near, and gaze upon this wonder of the world, which I wish I could set before my readers, in all its mystery, magnitude and grandeur. It is not a lofty cone, or mountain-top pointing to the heavens, but a vast chasm in the earth, five or six times the depth of Niagara falls, and seven or eight miles in circumference. It is situated on the flank of a vast mountain, which has been gradually piled up by a similar agency during the course of ages. Such is the immense extent and depth of Kilauea, that it would take in, entire, the city of Philadelphia or New York, and make their loftiest spires, viewed from the rim, appear small and low. But neither cities nor meadows, nor water nor vegetation, can be found in this chief of the deep places of the earth, but a lake of lava, some black and indurated, some fiery and flowing, some cooling as a floating bridge over the fathomless molten abyss, seven times hotter than Nebuchadnezzar’s hottest furnace, and some bursting up through this temporary incrustation, rending it here and there, and forming mounds and cones upon it. The immense mass, laboring to escape, pressed against the great crater’s sides, which consist not of a frail ‘Chinese wall,’ built by human hands to resist human strength, but an irregularly elliptical wall of basaltic rocks, extending a thousand feet above the surface of the lava lake, and to unknown depths below. Six hundred feet below, the verge stretches around horizontally, a vast amphitheater gallery of black indurated lava, once fluid but now solid, and on which an army of a hundred thousand men might stand to view the sublime spectacle beneath, around, and above them.

“While through the eye, the impressions of grandeur, strong at first, increased till the daylight was gone, the impressions received through the ear, were peculiar, and by no means inconsiderable. The fiercely whizzing sound of gas and steam, rushing with varying force through obstructed apertures in blowing cones, or cooling crusts of lava, and the laboring, wheezing, struggling, as of a living mountain, breathing fire and smoke and sulphurous gas from his lurid nostrils, tossing up molten rocks or detached portions of fluid lava, and breaking up vast indurated masses with varied detonations, all impressively bade us stand in awe. When we reached the verge, or whenever we came from a little distance to look over, these strange sounds increased, as if some intelligent power, with threatening tones and gestures, indignant at our obtrusiveness, were forbidding us to approach. The effect of all this on aboriginal visitors, before the true God was made known to them, may have been to induce or confirm the superstition, that a deity or family of deities dwelt there, and recognized the movements of men, and in various ways expressed anger against them. If my native fellow-travelers had not been cured of their superstition, or had not known me to be opposed to all idolatry, and particularly to the worship of Pele, the goddess whom they once supposed dwelt there, they might naturally have mistaken my almost involuntary prostration, as an act of religious homage to this discarded Hawaiian deity. But the missionaries had set at naught the tabus of this deity, and Kapiolani had openly invaded the same, and descending into this crater had, in a fearless and Christian manner, there acknowledged Jehovah as the only true God, and proclaimed to her countrymen that this was but one of the fires which he has kindled and controls. So that the natives now with me were ready devoutly to acknowledge all this.

“When seven years before our visit, Messrs. Ellis, Thurston, Bishop and Goodrich, accompanied by Mr. Harwood, visited this yawning gulf, they said of it: ‘The bottom was filled with lava, and the south-west and northern parts of it were one vast flood of liquid fire, in a state of terrific ebullition, rolling to and fro its fiery surge and flaming billows. Fifty-one craters of various forms and sizes, rose, like so many conical islands from the surface of the burning lake. Twenty-two constantly emitted columns of gray smoke and pyramids of brilliant flame, and many of them at the same time vomited from their ignited mouths, streams of fluid lava, which rolled in blazing torrents down their black, indented sides, into the boiling mass of fire below.’ The surface of this body of lava is subject to unceasing changes from year to year; for ‘deep calleth unto deep’ continually, and the fiery billows of this troubled ocean never rest.

“As night came on we took our station on the north side of the very brink, where we supposed we should be able most securely and satisfactorily to watch the action of this awful laboratory during the absence of the light of the sun. Though the spot where we spread our blanket for a lodgment had been considered as the safest in the neighborhood, there was room for the feeling of insecurity which some who had preceded us have thus described. ‘The detachment of one small stone beneath, or a slight agitation of the earth, would have precipitated us, amid the horrid crash of falling rocks, into the burning lake.’ Had I thought the danger so imminent, I should have deemed it prudent to take a position somewhat further off. The mass which supported us had doubtless been shaken a thousand times, and was liable every hour to be shaken again; but being in the short curvature of the crater, like the key-stone of an arch, it could not easily be thrown from its position by any agitation that would naturally occur while this great safety-valve is kept open, or the numerous fissures round it, reaching to the very bowels of the mountain, convey harmlessly from unknown depths, gases and volumes of steam, generated where water comes in contact with intense volcanic heat. Our position was about four thousand feet above the level of the sea, and one thousand above the surface of the lake below us.

“The great extent of the surface of this lava lake; the numerous places in it where the fiery element was displaying itself; the conical mouths here and there discharging glowing lava overflowing and spreading its waves around, or belched out in detached and molten masses that were shot forth with detonations, perhaps by the force of gases struggling through from below the surface, while the vast column of vapor and smoke ascended up toward heaven, and the coruscations of the emitted brilliant lava, illuminating the clouds that passed over the terrific gulf, all presented by night a splendid and sublime panorama of volcanic action, probably nowhere surpassed, if ever equaled, and which to be imagined must be seen. Had Vulcan employed ten thousand giant Cyclops, each with a steam-engine of a thousand horse-power, blowing anthracite coal for smelting mountain minerals, or heaving up and hammering to pieces the everlasting rocks and hills, their united efforts would but begin to compare with the work of Pele here.

“There was enough of mystery connected with the wonderful experiments going on before our eyes, to give ample employment to fancy and philosophy, and materially to enhance the sublimity of the fearful scene. For it might be asked, how can such an immense mass of rocks and earth be kept incessantly in a state of fusion without fuel or combustion? Or by what process could such solid masses be fused at all, in accordance with any mode of generating heat with which we are acquainted? If there be combustion in the crater adequate to the melting of such vast masses of substances so hard, rocky and earthy, why is there an accumulation and increase of the general mass, so that millions of cubic fathoms are, from time to time, added to the solid contents of the mountain? But if the bowels of the mountain are supposed to be melted by intense heat in some way generated, could they be heaved up by the expansion of steam or gas, while an orifice equal to three or four square miles, like that of Kilauea, or the terminal crater on the same mountain, is kept open; for steam and gas might be supposed to pass through the fluid masses and escape, instead of raising them from a depth, just as steam issues from the bottom of a boiling caldron, without materially elevating the surface of its contents.

“But if with one class of geologists, we suppose the interior of the earth to be in a molten and fluid state, as perhaps originally created, and that Kilauea and other volcanoes are but the openings and safety-valves of that subterranean, fiery, central ocean of red or white-hot matter, then we have here no faint illustration of the bold imagery used by the sacred writers, and of their phraseology, which to some seems hyperbolical and even paradoxical, as when they speak of the ‘bottomless pit,’ the ‘fire that is not quenched,’ ‘the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone,’ ‘the smoke of their torment which ascendeth up forever and ever.’ If such a vast mass of fiery fluid constitutes the main portion of the interior of the earth, it is literally ‘bottomless;’ and the opened surface, like that of Kilauea, may be strictly called a ‘lake of fire;’ and as sulphur and particles of the sulphuret of iron are present, it may well be called ‘a lake that burns with fire and brimstone.’

“After gazing at the wonderful and wonderfully sublime scene for some twenty hours, taking but a little time for repose, we found the sense of fear subsiding, and curiosity prompting to a closer intercourse with Pele, and a more familiar acquaintance with her doings and habits. Many who try the experiment, though at first appalled, are ready after a few hours, to wend their way down the steep sides of the crater. Thus we descended into the immense pit from the north-east side, where it was practicable, first to the black ledge or amphitheater gallery, and thence to the surface of the lava lake. This we found extremely irregular, presenting cones, mounds, plains, vast bridges of lava recently cooled, pits and caverns, and portions of considerable extent in a movable and agitated state. We walked over lava which, by some process, had been fractured into immensely large slabs, as though it had been contracted by cooling, or been heaved up irregularly by the semi-fluid mass below. In the fissures of this fractured lava, the slabs or blocks two feet below the surface, were red-hot. A walking-stick thrust down would be set on fire and flame instantly.

“Passing over many masses of such lava, we ventured toward the more central part of the lake, and came near to a recent mound which had probably been raised on the cooling surface, after our arrival the day before. From the top of it flowed melted lava, which spread itself in waves to a considerable distance, one side or the other, all around. The masses thrown out in succession moved sluggishly, and as they flowed down the inclined plane, a crust was formed over them, which darkened and hardened, and became stationary, while the stream still moved on below it. The front of the mass, red-hot, passed along down, widening and expanding itself, and forcing its way through a net-work, as it were, of irregular filaments of iron, which the cooling process freely supplied. This motion of a flowing mass, whether smaller or larger, seen from the rim of the crater by night, gives the appearance of a fiery surf, or a rolling wave of fire, or the dancing along of an extended semicircular flame on the surface of the lake. When one wave has expended itself, or found its level, or otherwise become stationary, another succeeds and passes over it in like manner, and then another, sent out as it were, by the pulsations of the earth’s open artery, at the top of the mound. This shows how a mound, cone, pyramid, or mountain, can be gradually built of lava, and wide plains covered at its base with the same material.

“We approached near the border of some of these waves, and reached the melted lava with a stick two yards long; and thus obtained several specimens red-hot from the flowing mass. I have since had occasion to be surprised at the absence of fear in this close contiguity with the terrible element, where the heat under our feet was as great as our shoes would bear, and the radiating heat from the moving mass was so intense that I could face it only a few seconds at a time at a distance of two or three yards. Yet having carefully observed its movements awhile, I threw a stick of wood upon the thin crust of a moving wave where I believed it would bear me, even if it should bend a little, and stood upon it a few moments. In that position, thrusting my cane down through the cooling, tough crust, about half an inch thick, I withdrew it, and forthwith there gushed up of the melted, flowing lava under my feet, enough to form a globular mass two and a half or three inches in diameter, which, as it cooled, I broke off and bore away as spoils from the ancient domain and favorite seat of the great idol goddess of the Hawaiians. Parts that were in violent action we dared not approach.

“There is a remarkable variety in the volcanic productions of Hawaii; a variety as to texture, form and size, from the vast mountain and extended plain, to the fine-drawn and most delicate vitreous fiber, the rough clinker, the smooth stream, the basaltic rock, and masses compact and hard as granite or flint, and the pumice or porous scoriæ, or cinders, which, when hot, probably formed a scum or foam on the surface of the denser molten mass. Considerable quantities of capillary glass are produced at Kilauea, though I am not aware that the article is found elsewhere on the islands. Its production has been deemed mysterious. In its appearance it resembles human hair, and among the natives is familiarly called ‘Lauoho o Pele,’ the hair of Pele. It is formed, I presume, by the tossing off of small detached portions of lava of the consistence of melted glass, from the mouths of cones, when a fine vitreous thread is drawn out between the moving portion, and that from which it is detached. The fine-spun product is then blown about by the wind, both within and around the crater, and is collected in little locks or tufts.

“Sulphur is seen, but in small quantities, in and around the crater; and at a little distance from the rim there are yellow banks, on which beautiful crystals of sulphur may be found. In one place, a pool of pure distilled water, condensed from the steam that rises from a deep fissure, affords the thirsty traveler a beverage far better than that of the ordinary distiller. There is, however, a kind of sulphurous gas produced by the volcano, which is highly deleterious if breathed often or freely. This is one source of danger to the visitor, which, while I was down a thousand feet below the rim, produced a temporary coughing.

“I was, perhaps, too venturesome, but other visitors have been far more so. As one instance of this, Dr. Judd, having become familiar with the volcanic power, in his ardor to secure valuable and recent specimens for the United States exploring expedition, on the visit of Commodore Wilkes and his company to this crater, descended to the surface of the lake, and then into a sub-crater in the midst of the larger. While he was busily engaged there in collecting specimens, a sudden bursting up of a huge volume of fluid lava from the bottom of the sub-crater, alarmed him, and threatened speedily to overwhelm and destroy him. He sprang to escape, but finding the rim overhanging, he could not scale it where he was; and the flowing mass was now too near to allow him to return to the place where he had descended; and its radiating heat was too intense to be faced. Escape without assistance was utterly hopeless; and the natives of the company who were about the brink, and from whom such help might have been expected, alarmed for themselves, were flying for their lives. Dr. Judd, giving himself up for lost, offered a prayer to heaven, and was about to resign himself to his fate, when a friendly and resolute Hawaiian, who had been a pupil at the mission seminary, compassionating the exposed sufferer, faced the approaching fiery volume, and braving its intense heat, exposed his own life, reached down his strong hand, and firmly grasped the doctor’s, who thus, at the last available moment, through their united exertions and the blessing of heaven, escaped with his life from the horrible pit and a fiery grave! A mighty current instantly overflowed the place where they had just been standing, and they were obliged to run for their lives before the molten flood; and being able to outstrip it, they ascended from the surface of the abyss to the lofty rim, with heartfelt thanksgivings to their great deliverer.^[1] This proves the real danger of descending too far into the crater of the volcano; and had it occurred in the days of unbroken superstition, it would doubtless have been ascribed to the anger of Pele, and tended to increase the number of her deluded worshipers. But now such a deliverance was justly ascribed to the kind providence of Jehovah, the knowledge of whose character, as displayed in the gospel, has introduced the Hawaiian race into a new life.

“Kilauea may be regarded as one of the safety-valves of a bottomless reservoir of melted earth, below the cooled and cooling crust on which mountains rise, rivers flow, oceans roll, and cities are multiplied as the habitations of men. It has been kept open from time immemorial, always displaying more or less of its active power. The circumambient air which carries off the caloric, sometimes aided by rain, is incessantly endeavoring to shut up this valve, or bridge over this orifice of three or four square miles of the fiery abyss. Sometimes the imperfect bridge of cooling lava is pierced with fifty or sixty large, rough, conical chimneys, emitting gas, smoke, flame, and lava; and sometimes the vast bridge is broken up, and all these cones submerged and probably fused again by the intense heat of the vast fluid mass supplied fresh from the interior. The mass rises gradually higher and higher, hundreds of feet, till by its immense pressure against the sides of the crater, aided, perhaps, by the power of gas or steam, it forces a passage for miles through the massive walls, and inundates with its fiery deluge some portion of the country below, or passing through it, as a river of fire, pours itself into the sea at the distance of twenty-five miles, thus disturbing with awful uproar the domains of old Neptune, and enlarging the dominions of the Hawaiian sovereign.

“The whole island, with its ample and towering mountains, is often shaken with awful throes, and creation here ‘groaneth and travaileth in pain.’ In July, 1840, a river of lava flowed out from Kilauea, and passing some miles under ground, burst out in the district of Puna, and inundated a portion of the country, sweeping down forests, carrying everything in its way before it, and as a river a mile wide, falling into the sea, and heating the waters of the ocean, making war upon its inhabitants, and by the united action of this volcanic flood and the sea, formed several huge, rough hills of sand and lava along the shore. And still later than the above date, a similar flood has been poured from the summit of Mauna Loa, flowing with terrific force for weeks, and thus elevating a portion of the region between Mauna Loa and Mauna KeaKea; and so extensive and splendid was this exhibition, that it could be seen from the missionary station at Hilo, a distance of about forty miles.

“After having spent some thirty hours on this king of all the volcanoes, we set out to return. And on our journey we passed over several large tracts of lava of different kinds, some smooth, vitreous and shining, some twisted and coiled like huge ropes, and some consisting of sharp, irregular, loose, rugged volcanic masses, of every form and size, from an ounce in weight to several tuns, thrown, I could not conceive how, into a chaos or field of the roughest surface, presenting a forbidding area of from one to forty square miles in extent; and though not precipitous, yet so horrid as to forbid a path, and to defy the approach of horses and cattle. In the crevices of the more solid lava are found the ohelo, which somewhat resembles the whortleberry, nourished by frequent showers and dew. At ten o’clock we halted for breakfast, and by the time the sun was setting had reached Waimea, thus completing our excursion to this vast volcano, which is truly one of the wonders of the world!”

THE PEAK OF DERBYSHIRE.

This peak consists of a chain of high mountains in the county of Derby, in England, and has been long celebrated, as well on account of its mineral productions, and natural curiosities in general, as of what are called its seven wonders. Six of these are natural, namely, Poole’s Hole, Elden Hole, the Peak Cavern, or the Devil’s Hole, Mam Tor, St. Ann’s Well, and the Ebbing and Flowing Well. Having described these, we shall add a more recent discovery, that of the Crystallized Cavern, which possesses an equal interest.

Poole’s Hole, lying about a mile to the westward of Buxton, is a vast cavern formed by nature in the limestone rock, and was, according to tradition, the residence of an outlaw, named Poole. The entrance is low and contracted, and the passage narrow; but this widening, at length, leads to a lofty and spacious cavern, from the roof of which stalactites or transparent crystals, formed by the constant dropping of water laden with calcareous matter, hang in spiral masses. Other portions of these petrifactions drop and attach themselves to the floor, rising in cones, and become what are termed stalagmites.

One of the dropping stalactites, of an immense size, called the Flitch of Bacon, occurs about the middle of the cavern, which here becomes very narrow, but soon spreads to a greater width, and continues large and lofty until the visitor reaches another surprisingly large mass of stalactite, to which the name of Mary Queen of Scots’ Pillar is given, from the tradition that this unfortunate queen once paid a visit to the cavern, and proceeded thus far into its recesses. As this pillar can not be passed without some difficulty, few persons venture beyond it; nor does it seem desirable, as, by proceeding thus far, a very competent idea of the cavern may be formed. The path hitherto is along the side, and at some hight from the bottom of the cavern; but to visit and examine the interior extremity, it becomes necessary to descend a few yards by very slippery and ill-formed steps. The path at the bottom is tolerably even and level for about sixty feet, when an almost perpendicular ascent commences, which leads to the extremity of the fissure, through the eye of St. Anthony’s Needle, a narrow strait, beyond which the steepness of the way is only to be surmounted by clambering over irregular masses of rock. The cavern terminates nearly three hundred feet beyond the Queen of Scots’ pillar. Toward the end is an aperture through a projecting rock, behind which a candle is generally placed, when any person has reached the extremity: when seen at that distance, it appears like a dim star. The visitor returns along the bottom of the cavern, beneath a considerable portion of the road by which he entered; and, by thus changing the path, has an opportunity better to ascertain the hight and width of the cavern in every part, and to view other accumulated petrifactions, some of which are of a prodigious size, and of an extraordinary form. In one part of this passage is a fine spring of transparent water; and a small stream, which becomes more considerable in rainy seasons, runs through the whole length of the cavern. Its sound, in passing through this spacious and lofty concavity, which resembles the interior of a Gothic cathedral, has a fine effect. To the right, in a small cavern called Poole’s chamber, is a curious echo.

The various masses of stalactical matter which are everywhere met with in this natural excavation, and which reflect innumerable rays from the lights carried by guides, are distinguished by the names of the objects they are fancied most to resemble. Thus we have Poole’s saddle, his turtle, and his woolsack; the lion, the lady’s toilet, the pillion, the bee-hive, &c. It should be noticed, however, that the forms are constantly varied by the percolation of the water through the roof and sides of the rock. The subterraneous passage is nearly a half a mile in length.

ELDEN HOLE.

Elden Hole is situated on the side of a gentle hill about a mile to the north-west of the village of Peak Forest. It is a deep chasm in the ground, surrounded by a wall, of uncemented stones, to prevent accidents. This fissure or cleft in the rock has been the subject of many exaggerated descriptions and superstitious reports, having been represented not only as unfathomable, but as teeming, at a certain depth, with so impure an air, that it could not be respired without immediate destruction. Mr. Lloyd, however, who descended it about seventy years ago, has proved the absurdity of these relations, in a paper, of which the following is a brief abstract, published in the Philosophical Transactions.

For the first sixty feet, he observes, he descended somewhat obliquely, the passage then becoming difficult from projecting crags. At the further depth of thirty feet, the inflection of his rope varied at least eighteen feet from the perpendicular. The breadth of the chink was here about nine feet, and the length eighteen; the sides being irregular, moss-grown, and wet. Within forty-two feet of the bottom, the rock opened on the east, and he swung till he reached the floor of a cave, one hundred and eighty-six feet only from the mouth, the light from which was sufficiently strong to permit the reading of any book. The interior of the chasm he describes as consisting of two parts, which communicate with each other by a small arched passage, the one resembling an oven, the other the dome of a glass-house. On the south side of the latter, was a small opening, about twelve feet in length, and four feet in hight, lined throughout with a kind of sparkling stalactite, of a fine deep yellow color, with petrifying drops hanging from the roof. Tracing the entrance he found a noble column, above ninety feet high, of the same kind of incrustation. As he proceeded to the north, he came to a large stone which was covered with the same substance; and beneath it he found a hole six feet in depth, uniformly lined with it. From the edge of this hole sprung up a rocky ascent, sloping, like a buttress, against the side of the cavern, and consisting of vast, solid, round masses of the same substance and color. Having climbed this ascent to the hight of about sixty feet, he obtained some fine pieces of stalactite, which hung from the craggy sides of the cavern. Descending with some difficulty and danger, he proceeded in the same direction, and soon came to another pile of incrustations of a brown color, above which he found a small cavern, opening into the side of the vault, which he now entered. Here he saw vast masses of stalactite, hanging like icicles from every part of the roof: several of these were four and five feet long, and thick as a man’s body. The sides of the largest cavern were chiefly lined with incrustations of three kinds, the first of which was a deep yellow stalactite; the second, a thin coating which resembled a pale stone-color varnish, and reflected the light of the candle with great splendor; and the third, a rough efflorescence, the shoot of which resembled a rose flower.

Some more recent visitors have thus stated the result of their observations and inquiries relative to Elden Hole. They describe the mouth of this chasm as opening horizontally, in a direction from north to south; its shape being nearly that of an irregular ellipse, about ninety feet in length, and twenty-seven in breadth at the widest part. The northern end is fringed with small trees; and moss and underwood grow out of the crevices on each side, to the depth of forty or fifty feet. As the fissure recedes from the surface, it gradually contracts; and at the depth of about seventy feet inclines considerably to the west, so as to prevent its course from being further traced. Notwithstanding the obstacles of the bushes and projecting masses of stone, it was sounded, and its depth found not to exceed two hundred and two feet, an estimate which corresponds with the assertion of three miners, who had descended in search of the bodies of individuals who were missing, and were supposed to have been robbed, murdered, and thrown into this frightful abyss.

PEAK CAVERN.

Peak cavern, also called the Devil’s Hole, is one of those magnificent, sublime, and extraordinary productions of nature, which constantly excite the wonder and admiration of their beholders. It has accordingly been considered one of the principal wonders of Derbyshire, and has been celebrated by several poets. It lies in the vicinity of Castleton, and is approached by a path at the side of a clear rivulet, leading to the fissure, or separation of the rock, at the extremity of which the cavern is situated. It would be difficult to imagine a scene more august than that which presents itself to the visitor at its entrance: on each side, the huge gray rocks rise almost perpendicularly, to the hight of nearly three hundred feet, or about seven times the hight of a modern house, and meeting each other at right or cross angles, form a deep gloomy recess. In front, it is overhung by a vast canopy of rock, assuming the appearance of a depressed arch, and extending, in width, one hundred and twenty feet, in hight forty-two, and in receding depth about ninety. After penetrating about ninety feet into the cavern, the roof becomes lower, and a gentle descent leads, by a detached rock, to the interior entrance of this tremendous hollow. Here the light of day, having gradually diminished, wholly disappears; and the visitor is provided with a torch to illumine his further progress.

The progress now becoming extremely confined, he is obliged to proceed, in a stooping posture, about twenty yards, when he reaches a spacious opening, named the Bellhouse, and is thence led to a small lake, called the First Water, about forty feet in length, but not more than two or three feet in depth. Over this he is conveyed in a boat to the interior of the cavern, beneath a massive vault of rock, which in some parts descends to within eighteen or twenty inches of the water. “We stood some time,” says M. de St. Fond, “on the brink of this lake; and the light of our dismal torches, which emitted a black smoke, reflecting our pale images from its bottom, we almost conceived we saw a troop of specters starting from an abyss to welcome us. The illusion was extremely striking.”

On landing, the visitor enters a spacious vacuity, two hundred and twenty feet in length, two hundred feet in breadth, and in some parts one hundred and twenty feet in hight, opening into the bosom of the rock; but, from the want of light, neither the distant sides nor the roof of this abyss, can be seen. In a passage at the inner extremity of this vast cave, the stream which flows through the whole length of the cavern, spreads into what is called the Second Water, and near its termination is a projecting pile of rocks, known by the appellation of Roger Rain’s House, from the incessant fall of water in large drops through the crevices of the roofs. Beyond this, opens another tremendous hollow, called the Chancel, where the rocks are much broken, and the sides covered with stalactical or petrified incrustations. Here the visitor is surprised by a vocal concert which bursts in discordant tones from the upper regions of the chasm. “Still,” observes a tourist, “this being unexpected, and issuing from a quarter where no object can be seen, in a place where all else is still as death, is calculated to impress the imagination with solemn ideas, and can seldom be heard without that emotion of awe and pleasure, astonishment and delight, which is one of the most interesting feelings of the mind.” At the conclusion of the strain, the choristers, who consist of eight or ten women and children, are seen ranged in the hollow of the rock, about fifty feet above the floor.

The path now leads to a place whimsically called the Devil’s Cellar and Half-way House, and thence, by three natural and regular arches, to a vast concavity, which, from its uniform bell-like appearance, is called Great Tom of Lincoln. When illuminated by a strong light, this concavity has a very pleasing effect; the symmetrical disposition of the rocks, the stream flowing beneath, and the spiracles in the roof, forming a very interesting picture. From this point the vault gradually descends, the passage contracts, and at length does not leave more than sufficient room for the current of the stream, which continues to flow through a subterraneous channel of several miles in extent, as is proved by the small stones brought into it after great rains, from the distant mines of the Peak Forest.

The entire length of this wonderful cavern is twenty-two hundred and fifty feet, or nearly half a mile; and its depth, from the surface of the Peak mountain, about six hundred and twenty feet. A curious effect is produced by the explosion of a small quantity of gunpowder, wedged into the rock in the interior of the cavern; for the sound appears to roll along the roof and sides, like a tremendous and continued peal of thunder. The effect of the light, on returning from these dark recesses, is particularly impressive; and the gradual illumination of the rocks, which becomes brighter as the entrance is approached, is said to exhibit one of the most interesting scenes that ever employed the pencil of an artist, or fixed the admiration of a spectator.

MAM TOR.

Mam Tor or the Shivering Mountain, is a huge precipice facing the east or south-east, chiefly composed of a peculiar kind of slate, which, although very hard before it is exposed to the air, very easily crumbles to dust on such exposure. Hence it is perpetually wasted by the action of the rain and snow; while the harder and larger masses of stone being thus loosened and disengaged, necessarily fall from their positions, and this with a rushing noise which is occasionally so loud as to be heard at Castleton, a distance of two miles. The valley beneath is overwhelmed with their fragments to the extent of half a mile. In many partsparts of the precipice, they produce, before their descent, a cavernous appearance, and even a romantic overhanging scenery, highly dangerous to be approached. It is affirmed by the most intelligent of the neighboring inhabitants, that this mountain chiefly wastes during violent storms of snow and rain; and Mr. Martin, who published an account of Mam Tor, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1729, affirms that the decay is not constantly the same. He not only surveyed it closely, but ascended the steepest part of the precipice, without tracing any other shivering in the mountain, beside that which was occasioned by the treading of his feet in the loose crumbled earth.

THE EBBING AND FLOWING WELL.

In the vicinity of Chapel-en-le-Frith is a steep hill, rising to the hight of more than a hundred feet, immediately beneath which this natural phenomenon lies. It is of an irregular form, but nearly approaching to a square, from two or three feet in depth, and about twenty feet in width.

Its ebbings and flowings are irregular, and dependent on the quantity of rain which falls in the different seasons of the year; when it begins to rise, the current can only be perceived by the slow movement of the blades of grass, or other light bodies floating on the surface; notwithstanding which, before the expiration of a minute, the water issues with a gurgling noise, in considerable quantities, from several small apertures on the south and west sides. The interval of time between the ebbing and flowing is not always alike: consequently the proportion of water it discharges at different periods, also varies. In the space of five minutes flowing, the water occasionally rises to the hight of six inches; and, after remaining a few seconds stationary, the well assumes its former quiescent state.

The cause of the intermittent flowing of this well may be satisfactorily explained, on the principle of the action of the siphon, and on the supposition of a natural one communicating with a cavity in the hill, where the water may be supposed to accumulate; but for the phenomenon of its ebbing, no satisfactory reason has been assigned. The opinion of a second siphon, (which is ingeniously advanced by one tourist,) that begins to act when the water rises, is inconsistent with the appearance of the well, and therefore can not be just.

ST. ANNE’S WELL.

This well, the usual resort of the company who frequent Buxton to drink the waters, has been classed among the wonders of the peak, on account of this singularity, that within five feet of the hot spring by which it is supplied, a cold one arises. This is not, however, the only well of the kind, since hot and cold springs rise near each other in many parts of England, and in other countries. The water is conveyed to the well, which is an elegant classical building, in the Grecian style, from the original spring, by a narrow passage, so close and well contrived as to prevent it from losing any considerable portion of its heat, and is received in a white marble bason. It is not so warm as the Bath water, its temperature being about eighty degrees of Fahrenheit.

The crystallized cavern, the new wonder of the Derbyshire Peak, was discovered some years ago in the vicinity of the village of Bradwell. We extract the following particulars of this singular and beautiful natural excavation, from Hutchinson’s tour in the High Peak.

The entrance is rather terrific than grand; and the descent, for about thirty paces, very abrupt. The visitor has then to pass along the inclined way for nearly a quarter of a mile, the opening being so low that it is impossible to proceed, in particular parts, in an erect posture. The different crystallizations which now attract his attention on every side, soon make him forget the irksomeness of the road, and banish every idea of fatigue. New objects of curiosity crowd one on the other. In a place called the Music Chamber, the petrifactions take the semblance of the pipes of an organ; while in other parts, these stalactites are formed into elegant small colonnades, with as exact a symmetry as if they had been chiseled by the most skillful artist. Candles judiciously disposed within them, give an idea of the imaginary palaces of fairies, or of sylphs and genii, who have chosen this for their magnificent abode.

Still he has seen nothing comparable to what he is now to expect; for, at the distance of about a hundred paces further, by a rugged descent, he enters what is called the Grotto of Paradise. This heavenly spot, for it can not be compared to anything terrestrial, is, of itself, a beautiful crystallized cavern, about twelve feet high, and in length twenty feet, pointed at the top, similar to a Gothic arch, with a countless number of large stalactites hanging from the roof. Candles placed among them give some idea of its being lighted up with elegant glass chandeliers; while the sides are entirely incrusted, and brilliant in the extreme. The floor is checkered with black and white spar. It has, altogether, a most novel and elegant appearance. This glittering apartment would be left by the visitor with a certain degree of regret, did he not expect to see it again on his return.

Still continuing a route similar to the one he has passed, in the course of which his attention is occasionally arrested by the curiosities of the place, and by the gentle droppings of the water, which scarcely break the solemn silence of the scene, he at length reaches the Grotto of Calypso, and the extremity of the cavern, upward of two thousand feet from the entrance. To see this grotto to advantage, he has to ascend about six feet, into a recess. There, the beautiful appearance of the different crystallizations, some of them of an azure cast, and the echoes reverberating from side to side, make him fancy he has reached the secluded retreat of some mythological deity.

Returning by the same path for a considerable distance, another cavern, which branches in a south-west direction from the one already explored, presents itself. The roads here are still more difficult of access, but the stalactites are certainly most beautiful. Many of them, more than a yard in length, are pendent from the roof, and the greater part do not exceed the dimension of the smallest reed. The top and sides of this cavern are remarkably smooth, particularly at the part called the Amphitheater. In general, the stone is of a very dark color, to which the transparent appearances before mentioned, with each a drop of water hanging at its extremity, form a fine contrast.

SPEEDWELL LEVEL.

In the Speedwell Level, or Navigation Mine, in the vicinity of Castleton, art has been combined with the subterraneous wonders of nature. Being provided with lights, the guide leads the visitor beneath an arched vault, by a flight of one hundred and six steps, to the sough or level, where a boat is ready for his reception, and is put in motion by pushing against pegs driven into the wall for that purpose. After proceeding about one-third of a mile through various caverns, the level bursts into a tremendous gulf, the roof and bottom of which are invisible, but across which the navigation has been carried, by throwing a strong arch over a part of the fissure where the rocks are least separated. Here, leaving the boat, and ascending a stage erected above the level, the attention of the visitor is directed to the dark recess of the abyss beneath his feet; and firm indeed must be his resolution, if he can contemplate the scene unmoved, and without an involuntary shudder. To the depth of ninety feet all is vacuity and gloom; but beyond that commences a pool of Stygian waters, not unaptly named the Bottomless Pit, the prodigious range of which may in some measure be conceived, by the circumstance of its having swallowed up more than forty thousand tuns of rubbish, made in blasting the rock, without any apparent diminution either of its depth or extent. The guides assert that the former has not been ascertained; but there is reason to believe that its actual depth in standing water is about three hundred and twenty feet. There can not, however, be a doubt but that this abyss has communications with others still more deeply situated in the bowels of the mountain, and into which the precipitated rubbish has found a passage. The superfluous water of the level falls through a water-gate into this profound caldron, with a noise like a rushing torrent.

This fissure is calculated to be about eight hundred feet beneath the surface of the mountain; and so great is its reach upward, that rockets of sufficient strength to ascend four hundred and fifty feet, have been fired without rendering the roof visible. The effect of a Bengal light discharged in this stupendous cavity, is extremely magnificent and interesting.

THE HIGH TOR.

This is one of the many sublime objects presented by Matlock dale, the beauties of which will be cursorily described, in proportion as these objects pass under our review.

In approaching the bath, which is nearly a mile to the south-west of the village of Matlock, a specimen of the scenery by which this charming vale is distinguished, presents itself. The entrance is through a rock, which has been blasted for the purpose of opening a convenient passage; and here a scene which blends the constituent principles of the picturesque, the beautiful and the sublime, opens suddenly on the view. Through the middle of a narrow plain flows the Derwent, overhung by a profusion of luxuriant beeches and other drooping trees. Toward the east are gently rising grounds, and on the west the huge mural banks of the vale stretch along, the white face of the rock of which they are composed occasionally displaying itself through the woody clothing of their sides and summits. This magnificent scenery is singularly contrasted by the manufactories and lodging-houses at the bottom of the vale.

To see this magic spot to the greatest advantage, it should be entered at its northern extremity, its beauties then succeeding each other in a proper gradation, and their grandeur and effect being rendered more impressive. The chief attention is now attracted to the High Tor, a grand and stupendous rock, which appears like a vast abrupt wall of limestone, and rises almost perpendicularly from the river, to the hight of upward of three hundred and fifty feet. The lower part of this majestic feature is shaded by yew-trees, elms, limes, and underwood of various foliage; but the upper part, for fifty or sixty yards, presents a rugged front of one broad mass of perpendicular rock. From its summit the vale is seen in all its grandeur, diversified by woods of various hues and species. The windings of the Derwent, the grayish-colored rocks, and the white fronts of the houses, embosomed amid groves of trees which sprout from every crevice of the precipices, give variety and animation to a scene of wonderful beauty.