the Greeks, and consulted by the monarchs of the ancient world, were delivered by a priestess seated at the mouth of a cave, who pretended to be inspired with a knowledge of future events. The primitive inhabitants of Northern Europe selected caves as appropriate places for their barbarous rites. Among these is the cave of Thor, "The Thunderer," in the limestone district of Derbyshire, England, described by Darwin as

"The blood-smeared mansion of gigantic Thor."

3. Of the celebrated caverns of the Eastern world, the most famous is that called "The Grotto of Antiparos," a magnificent stalactite2 cavern in a little island of the same name in the Grecian Archipelago. Within its vaulted chambers are columns, some of which are twenty-five feet in length, hanging like icicles from the roof, while others extend from roof to floor. The following extract from the description given by Goldsmith, taken from the writings of an Italian traveler, will convey some idea of the scene presented in one of the interior chambers of this" enchanted grotto:"

4. "Our candles being now all lighted up, and the whole place completely illuminated, never could the eye be presented with a more glitter

ing or a more magnificent scene. The whole roof hung with solid icicles, transparent as glass, yet solid as marble. The eye could scarcely reach the lofty and noble ceiling; the sides were regularly formed with spars, and the whole presented the idea of a magnificent theatre illuminated with an immense profusion of lights. The floor consisted of solid marble; and in several places magnificent columns, thrones, altars, and other objects appeared, as if nature had designed to mock the curiosities of art. Our voices, upon speaking or singing, were redoubled to an astonishing loudness, and upon the firing of a gun, the noise and reverberations were almost deafening."

5. But perhaps the most remarkable of all the cavern-like

formations in Europe is that of Fingal's Cave, in Staffa, a small islet among the Hebrides. Almost all the rocks of the island are basaltic3 and columnar; but here they are so arranged as to present the appearance of a magnificent work of art. An opening from the sea, sixty-six feet high and forty-two feet wide, formed by perpendicular walls crowned by an arch, leads to a natural hall more than two hundred feet long, and bounded on each side by perpendicular columns of great size, beautifully jointed, and arranged in varied groups. The roof is beautifully marked with the ends of pendent columns; and the whole is so well calculated to suggest the idea of a vast cathedral, as to have called forth the well-known lines of Sir Walter Scott on Fingal's Cave:

"When, as to shame the temples decked

By skill of earthly architect,

Nature herself, it seemed, would raise
A minster5 to her Maker's praise."

"The Cathedral of Iona," says a late writer, "sinks into insignificance before this great temple of nature, reared, as if in mockery of the temples of man, by the Almighty power who laid the beams of his chambers on the waters, and who walketh upon the wings of the wind."

1 AN-TIP'-A-ROS, now AN-TIP'-A-RO.

2 STA-LAO-TITE, a pendent cone of carbonate of lime in the form of an icicle.

of igneous origin, often in a columnar form.

4 PEND'-ENT, hanging.

3 BA-SALT-16; basalt is a grayish black stone 5 MIN'-STER, a cathedral church.

LESSON IX.-CAVES IN THE UNITED STATES.

Hall of Statuary, in Weyer's Cave, Virginia. in Kentucky.

1. SUBTERRANEAN caverns are not uncommon in our own country, and some of them will be found to rival in beauty, and greatly to surpass in extent, those of the Old World. We have space to enumerate but few of them here, but among the more noted may be mentioned the Big Saltpetre Cave in Marion County, Missouri, which, although yet but partially explored, promises to rival all others in beauty and extent; Weyer's Cave, in Augusta County, Virginia; and the celebrated Mammoth Cave

2. Weyer's Cave, which is in a limestone region, has a length of sixteen hundred feet in a straight line, but the aggregate of its branches and windings is near three thousand. Its numerous and extensive apartments, which have received various names from their fancied resemblance to temples, palaces, halls, cathedrals, etc., and which abound in stalactites1 of almost every possible variety of form and grouping, have been not inappropriately compared to the enchanted palaces of Eastern story. An engraving of the "Hall of Statuary," which we place at the head of this lesson, showing the stalagmites rising from the floor, and the pendent stalactites1 still dripping with lime-water, illustrates the process of these curious formations.

3. But the largest and most remarkable cave in the world is the famous Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, a region of vast and still unknown extent, hidden from the light of day. It has already been explored to the distance of ten miles, and a river navigable by boats affords a convenient means of pene

trating its subterranean recesses. Stalactites of immense size and fantastic forms adorn the interior, though they are less brilliant and beautiful than those of some other caverns.

4. Bats and rats are abundant in this cave, and several species of insects are found in its dark recesses. In its waters have been found two species of fish, in color nearly white, and unknown elsewhere. One of these is the eyeless fish; and the other, though with the appearance of eyes, is entirely blind, showing that where eyes are of no use, nature finally dispenses with them-a proceeding in perfect harmony with the physiological law that disuse of an organ gradually leads to its destruction.

5. A volume might be written descriptive of the wonders of this "Mammoth Cave"-of its mysterious chambers, its pillared domes, its echoing halls, its fathomless gulfs, and its dark waters; but in the brief space at our command we can not do better than submit the following from the pen of an American poet.

STA-LAG'-MĪTE, STA-LAC ́-TĪTE, layers or deposits of carbonate of lime, the former ris

ing from the floor, the latter hanging from the roof.

LESSON X.

-THE MAMMOTH CAVE.

1. ALL day, as day is reckoned on the earth,
I've wandered in these dim and awful aisles,
Shut from the blue and breezy dome of heaven;
While thoughts, wild, drear, and shadowy, have swept
Across my awe-struck soul, like spectres o'er
The wizard's magic glass, or thunder-clouds
O'er the blue waters of the deep. And now
I'll sit me down upon yon broken rock,
To muse upon the strange and solemn things
Of this mysterious realm.

2.

All day my steps
Have been amid the beautiful, the wild,
The gloomy, the terrific. Crystal founts,
Almost invisible in their serene

And pure transparency-high pillar'd domes,

With stars and flowers all fretted' like the halls

Of Oriental monarchs-rivers, dark

And drear, and voiceless as oblivion's stream

That flows through Death's dim vale of silence-gulfs,

All fathomless, down which the loosened rock

Plunges, until its far-off echoes come

Fainter and fainter, like the dying roll
Of thunders in the distance-Stygian2 pools,
Whose agitated waves give back a sound
Hollow and dismal, like the sullen roar

3.

4.

5.

6.

In the volcano's depths-these, these have left
Their spell upon me, and their memories
Have passed into my spirit, and are now
Blent with my being, till they seem a part
Of my own immortality.

God's hand,

At the creation, hollowed out this vast
Domain of darkness, where no herb nor flower
E'er sprang amid the sands; no dews nor rains,
Nor blessed sunbeams, fell with freshening power;
Nor gentle breeze its Eden-message told
Amid the dreadful gloom. Six thousand years
Swept o'er the earth ere human footprints marked
This subterranean desert. Centuries,

Like shadows, came and passed, and not a sound
Was in this realm, save when at intervals,
In the long lapse of ages, some huge mass
Of overhanging rock fell thundering down,
Its echoes sounding through these corridors3
A moment, and then dying in a hush

Of silence, such as brooded o'er the earth
When earth was chaos.

The great mastodon,*
The dreaded monster of the elder world,

Passed o'er this mighty cavern, and his tread
Bent the old forest oaks like fragile reeds,
And made earth tremble. Armies in their pride,
Perchance, have met above it in the shock
Of war, with shout, and groan, and clarion blast,
And the hoarse echoes of the thunder-gun.
The storm, the whirlwind, and the hurricane
Have roared above it, and the bursting cloud
Sent down its red and crashing thunder-bolt.
Earthquakes have trampled o'er it in their wrath
Rocking earth's surface as the storm-wind rocks
The old Atlantic; yet no sound of these
E'er came down to the everlasting depths
Of these dark solitudes.

How oft we gaze
With awe or admiration on the new
And unfamiliar, but pass coldly by
The lovelier and the mightier! Wonderful
Is this lone world of darkness and of gloom,
But far more wonderful yon outer world,
Lit by the glorious sun. These arches swell
Sublime in lone and dim magnificence.
But how sublimer God's blue canopy
Beleaguered with his burning cherubim,
Keeping their watch eternal!

Beautiful

6

Are all the thousand snow-white gems that lie

In these mysterious chambers, gleaming out

R