THE WOOL SHED AND THE GRAVEL PITS.
About 35 yards from the entrance to the Imperial Cave, northward, and thence about 30 yards east, is "The Wool Shed." The approach to it is narrow and low. In some places it has been formed by blasting, and in others by excavation through a red, sandy substance underneath the limestone. It widens as the Wool Shed is approached. In the floor is a hole going down to the former entrance to the cave, now closed by a stone wall. The Wool Shed is about 20 feet wide, 15 feet high, and 70 feet long. The formation over a large part of the walls and roof resembles the fleeces of sheep, hanging about and spreading over the shelving rocks in all directions. There is one pelt which suggests the "Golden Fleece" torn by Jason from the tree trunk in the poison wood guarded by the huge serpent spangled with bronze and gold, and which was soothed to slumber by the magic song of Orpheus. The surroundings are as strange as those of the lonely cave where dwelt Cheiron the Centaur, who taught the leader of the Argonauts "to wrestle and to box, and to hunt, and to play upon the harp." But perhaps, after all, it may be only an indifferent limestone representation of a fellmongering establishment. The woolly skins and scraps are mirrored on the retina. The impressions produced by the sense of vision depend not upon the optic nerve, but upon the imagination. Simply as a spectacle, however, the Wool Shed is curious and entertaining. The blocks of stone near to the base are for the most part plain, and the floor is broken and rugged.
Descending 12 steps, and passing through a tunnel five feet six inches by two feet, the visitor stands at the junction of the right and the left hand branches of the cave. Here formerly the passage was only 14 inches by 15 inches. The larger opening was made by blasting, and the material blown from the solid rock has been packed away in recesses at the side of the hall, which, at the junction of the two branches, widens out considerably, but does not present any specially interesting features. The right hand branch runs north-west, and the left hand branch runs south-west. Taking the south-west branch first, after travelling about 10 yards the visitor comes to "The Gravel Pits," which he reaches by ascending a mound with 13 steps. There are two pits of gravel. One of them is about 12 feet deep and the other about 15 feet. In the rocks overhead are bones distinctly visible, owing to the earthy matter having fallen away from them. Some of these bones are large. There are shelving rocks about six feet from the floor. The sides of one of the Gravel Pits are oblique, but the other pit, which is railed off, is round and perpendicular. It could hardly have been more symmetrical had it been made by a professional well-sinker. This spot, although perhaps uninteresting to a mere sight-seer, cannot fail to attract the attention of geologists. Ascending two flights of stairs with 14 steps each, the excursionist attains a height of about 40 feet above the Gravel Pits in a north-westerly direction. Between the two flights of steps the ground is sloping, and the walls hold a considerable portion of drift, the pebbles of which are large and tinged with oxide of iron. This passage leads to the Margherita Cave, and from it a tunnel branches off towards the "Architect's Studio." This is a very pretty vestibule, about 30 yards in length, and bearing south-east. At first it rises several feet by steps, and later on there is a descent of five steps through masses of stalactites, and past a beautiful pillar.
THE ARCHITECT'S STUDIO.