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Page 256:-
Deep was the cave, and downwards as it went
From the wide mouth, a rocky, rough descent:
And here the' access a gloomy grove defends:
And there the unnavigable lake extends,
O'er whose unhappy waters, void of light,
No bird presumes to steer his airy flight:
From hence the Grecian bards their legends make,
And give the name Avernus to the lake.
Dryden.
After viewing for some time, with horror and astonishment, its
dreadful aspect from the top, we were emboldened to descend, by a
steep and slippery passage, to the margin of this Avernian lake.
What its depth is, we could not learn; but from the length of
time the sinking stones we threw in continued to send up bubbles
from the black abyss, we concluded it to be very profound. How
far it extended under the huge pendant rocks, we could get no
information of, a subterranean embarkation having never yet been
fitted out for discoveries. In great floods, we were told, this
pot runs over: some traces of it then remained on the grass.
While we stood at the bottom, the awful silence was broken every
three or four seconds by drops of water falling into the lake
from the rocks above in different solemn keys. The sun shining on
the surface of the water, illuminated the bottom of the
superincumbent rocks, only a few feet above; which being viewed
by reflection in the lake, caused a curious deception, scarcely
any where to be met with - they appeared at the like distance
below its surface, in form of a rugged bottom: but, alas! how
fatal would be the consequence, if any adventurer should attempt
to wade across the abyss on this shadow of a foundation! - While
we were standing on the margin of this subterranean lake, we were
suddenly astonished with a most uncommon noise on the surface of
the water, under the pendant rocks. It is called by the country
people Hurtlepot boggard, and sometimes the fairy churn, as a
churn it resembles. It is no doubt frightful to them, and would
have been so to us, if we had not been apprized of the cause: we
found it was effected by the glutting of the surface of the water
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