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and terrible they are. The first was Malham-cave (or vulgarly
Maum-cove) though it has properly nothing of the cave about it.
It is a fine amphitheatre of perpendicular limestone rock, on the
side of the moor, at least an hundred yards high in the middle.
The rocks lie stratum upon stratum; and on some there are saxa
sedilia, or shelves, so that a person of great spirit and
agility, but of small and slender body, might almost walk round.
A small brook springs out of the bottom of the rocks; but in
floods the narrow subterranean passage is not able to give vent
to all the water, when there pours down a stupendous cataract, in
height almost double that of Niagara. This is the highest
perpendicular precipice I have ever seen, and I think not enough
known and admired by travellers for its greatness and
regularity.- After pursuing our journey near a mile, by the side
of the deep and romantic channel of the river Air, which washes
the base of many a rugged and high precipice in its impetuous
course to the vale beneath, we came to Gordale, the highest and
most stupendous of them all.- The prospect of it, from the side
of the opposite western bank, is awful, great, and grand. After
viewing for some time its horrid front with wonder and
astonishment, we were tempted to descend, with care and
circumspection, down the steep bank, on the west side, to this
river, which being interspersed with trees and shrubs enabled us
to rely on our hands, where we could find no sure foot-hold. The
water being low, we met with no difficulty in stepping from one
broken fragment of the rocks to another, till we got on the other
side, when we found ourselves underneath this huge impending
block of solid limestone, near an hundred yards high. The idea
for personal safety excited some awful sensations, accompanied
with a tremor. The mind is not always able to divest itself of
prejudices and unpleasing associations of ideas: reason told us
that this rock could not be moved out of its place by human
force, blind chance, or the established laws of nature; we stood
too far under its margin to be affected by any crumbling
descending fragment (and a very small one would have crushed us
to atoms, if it had fallen upon us) yet, in spite of reason and
judgement, the same unpleasing
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