Fingal’s cave, in the island Staffa, one of the western islands of Scotland, is a noted cave.
FINGAL’S CAVE.
It is thus described by a celebrated traveller. ‘The mind can hardly form an idea more magnificent than such a space, supported on each side by ranges of basaltic columns and roofed by the ends of those which have been broken off, between the angles of which, a yellow matter has exuded, which serves to define the angles exactly, and at the same time vary the color with a great degree of elegance. To render it still more imposing, the whole is lighted up from without, so that the farthest extremity is visible, and the air within being agitated by the motion of the water, is perfectly wholesome, and free from the noxious vapors with which caverns are usually filled.’
Some caverns are of great depth, descending in some instances, eleven thousand feet. Others, after a descent, assume a horizontal direction, and are formed into many grottoes. The most remarkable grotto known, is the Grotto of the island Antiparos, in the Archipelago sea. The principal chamber of this cavern is exhibited on page 3.
In many caverns, water is found at a great depth, and this circumstance, together with the fact that water is obtained by digging deep wells, seems to prove that there are sheets of water under ground, which extend to considerable distances.
MINERALS.
The earth contains many mineral substances beneath its surface, which are useful to man. These substances are dug out, and thus immense mines are formed. Gold and silver are obtained in great quantities in South America. Iron, the most useful of metals, is obtained in various parts of the world. Annexed is a representation of the iron mine at Dalmora, in Europe. The iron ore is not dug out as in mines of coal, tin, &c. but is torn up by means of gunpowder.
IRON MINE.