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Page 259:-
retirement will conceal him from every object that might divert
the eye.- Having descended with caution from rock to rock, we
passed under the arch, and came into the great cave, where we
stood some time in silent astonishment to view the amazing
cascade. The perpendicular height of the north corner of this
cave, was found, by an exact admeasurement, to be thirty-six
yards. Near eleven yards from the top issues a torrent, out of a
hole in the rock, about the dimensions of a large door in a
church, conveying usually as much water as the New River at
London. It rushes forwards with a curvature, which shows that it
has had a steep descent before it appears in open day, and
tumbles precipitately twenty-five yards perpendicular down on the
rocks at the bottom, with a noise that amazes the most intrepid
ear. The water sinks as its (sic) falls amongst the rocks and
pebbles, running by a subterranean passage about a mile, when it
appears again by the side of the turnpike road, visiting in its
way the other caverns of Ginglepot and Hurtlepot. The cave is
filled with the spray that arises from the water dashing against
the bottom; and the sun happening to shine very bright, we had a
small vivid rainbow within a few yards of us, for colour, size,
and situation perhaps no where else to be equalled. A huge rock,
that had sometime been rolled down by the impetuosity of the
stream, and was suspended between us and the top of the cascade,
like the coffin of Mahomet at Medina, had an excellent effect in
the scene. Though the stream had polished the surfaces of the
pebbles on which it fell at the bottom, by rolling them against
each other, yet its whole force was not able to drive from its
native place the long black moss that firmly adhered to the large
immovable rocks. We were tempted to descend into a dark chamber
at the very bottom of the cave, covered over with a ceiling of
rock above 30 yards thick, and from thence behind the cascade, at
the expense of having our clothes a little wet and dirtied; when
the noise became tremendous, and the idea for personal safety
awful and alarming, as the rocks on which we stood, and every one
about us seemed to shake with the vast concussion. We were
informed, that in a great drought the divergency of the stream is
so small, that we might with safety go quite round the cascade.
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