“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.