defcriptions of feveral fuperb bafaltic caufeways and delightful caverns in the midft of lavas. But I have never found any thing which comes near this, or can bear any comparifon with it, either for the admirable regularity of the columns, the height of the arch, the fituation, the forms, the elegance of this production of nature, or its resemblance to the mafter-pieces of art: though this had no fhare in its conftruction. It is, therefore, not at all furprifing that tradition should have made it the abode of a hero.

This charming monument of nature is thirty-five feet wide at the entrance, fifty-fix feet high, and a hundred and forty feet long.

The upright columns which compofe the frontifpicce, are of the most perfect regularity. Their height to the beginning of the curvature is forty-five feet.

The arch is compofed of two unequal fegments of a circle, which form a fort of natural pediment.

The mafs which crowns, or rather which forms the roof, is twenty feet thick in the loweft part. It confifts of fmall prifins, more or lefs regular, inclining in all directions, clofely united and cemented underneath and in the joints with a yellowish white calcareous matter, and fome zeolitic infiltrations, which give this fine ceiling the appearance of mofaic work.

The fea reaches to the very extremity of the cave. It is fifteen feet deep at the mouth; and its waves, inceffantly agitated, beat with great noise against the bottom and walls of the cavern, and every where break into foam. The light alfo penetrates through its whole length, diminishing gradually inwards, and exhibiting the most wonderful varieties of colour.

The right fide of the entrance prefents, on its exterior part, a vaft amphitheatre, formed of different ranges of large truncated prifms, the top of which may be eafily walked along. Several of thefe prifms are jointed, that is, concave on the one fide, and convex on VOL. VII.

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the other; and fome of them are divided by fimple tranfverfe interfections *.

Thefe prifms, confifting of a very durable and pure black bafaltes, are from one to three feet in diameter. Their forms are triangular, tetrahedial, pentagonal, and hexagonal; and fome of them have feven or eight fides. I faw feveral large prisms on the truncatures of which are diftin&tly traced the outlines of a number of fmaller prifms; that is, thefe prifms are formed of a bafaltes, which has a tendency to fubdivide itfelf likewife into prifms. I had before obferved the fame phenomenon in the bafaltic prifms of Vivarais.

The cave can be entered only by proceeding along the platform on the right fide, which I have mentioned above. But the way grows very narrow and difficult as it advances; for this fort of interior gallery, raised about fifteen feet above the level of the fea, is formed entirely of truncated perpendicular prifms of a great or lefs height, between which confiderable addrefs is neceffary to choofe one's fteps, the paffages being fometimes fo ftrait and fo flippery, owing to the droppings from the roof, that I took the very prudent refolution, fuggefted by our two guides, to proceed barefooted, and to take advantage of their affiftance, especially in a particular place, where I had room only to plant one foot, whilft I clung with my right hand to a large prism to fupport myself, and held the hand of one of the guides by the other. This difficult operation took place at the darkest part of the cave; and one half of the body was at the time fufpended over an abyss, where the fea daflied itself into a cloud of foam.

*Sir Jofeph Banks's draughtfman, very good and accurate, in other refpects, has fubftituted, probably to give greater effect to the cave, large maffes of tone irregularly piled on each other, on the right fide of the kind of amphitheatre, which ferves as a bafis to that part of the grove. But there is in reality nothing there except columns.

I was defirous of penetrating to the fartheft extremity, and I accomplished my purpose, though not without confiderable difficulty and danger. I, more than once, found my attention diftracted from the obfervations which I was happy to have an opportunity of making, to the thought of how I fhould get back again.

As I drew near to the bottom of the cave, the bold balcony, on which I walked, expanded into a large floping space compofed of thousands of broken vertical columns. The bottom was bounded by a compact range of pillars of an unequal height, and resembling the front of an organ.

It is worthy of remark, that at the time when Mr. Troil vifited the cave, the fea, by one of those uncommon chances which do not happen once in ten years, was fo calm that it permitted him to enter with a boat.

"At the very bottom of the cave," fays Mr. Troil, "and a little above the furface of the water, there is a kind of fmall cave which fends forth a very agreeable noife every time that the water rushes into it *"

As the fea was far trom being completely ftill, when I vifited it, I heard a noise of a very different nature every time that the waves, in rapid fucceffion, broke against its bottom. This found refembled that which is produced by striking a large hard body with great weight and force against another hard body in a fubterraneous cavity. The fhock was fo violent that it was heard at fome diftance, and the whole cavern feemed to thake with it. Being dote to the place whence the found iffued, and where the water is not fo deep upon the retreat of the wave, I endeavoured t difcover the caufe of this terrible collifion. If on obferved, that, a litle below the bafis which fupported the organfronted colonade, there was an aperture which formed

*Letters on Iceland.

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the outlet of a hollow, or perhaps a small cave. It was impoffible to penetrate into this cavity, but it may be prefumed that the tremendous noife was occafioned by a broken rock, driven by the violent impetuofity of the furge against its fides. By the boiling motion of the water, however, in the fame place, it is evident that there are feveral other fmall paffages, through which it iffues, after rushing into the principal aperture in a mafs. It is therefore not impoffible, when the fea is not fufficiently agitated, to put the emprifoned rock in motion, that the air, ftrongly compreffed by the weight of the water, which is in inceffant fluctuation, fhould, on rushing out by the small lateral paffages, produce a particular ftrange found. It might then be truly regarded as an organ created by the hand of nature; and this circumftance would fully explain why the ancient and real name of this cave in the Erfe language is, The Melodious Cave.

Sir Jofeph Banks, in the defcription which he has given us of the cave of Staffa, fays, that "between the angles a yellow ftalagmitic matter has exuded, which feemed to define the angles precifely." That is true, but the learned naturalift has not told us the nature of this yellowish matter.

Mr. Troil mentions it alfo: he says, that "the colour of the columns is a dark grey; but that the joints are filled with a quartrofe ftalactites, which diftinctly marks the feparation of the columns, and which, by the variety of its tints, has the most agreeable effect on the eye.' There is certainly an error here with regard to the fubftance. On breaking off feveral pieces of it, which it is not very eafy to do, owing to the height of the vault, I found that it was nothing but a calcareous matter coloured by the decompofition of the iron of the lava, and intermixed with a little argillaceous earth. This ftalactites has alfo very little adhefion, and is, in general, of an earthy nature. In feveral of the prifms I found fome globules of zeolites, but in very fmall quantity.

quantity. I alfo broke off from between two prisms, which were fo apart as to admit of introducing my hand, an incruftation in which the white and tranf parent zeolites was formed into very perfect small cu bical crystals, feveral of which were coloured red by the ferruginous lime arifing from the decompofition of the lava. But I must repeat, that zeolites is very rare in this cave, and having myfelf broken off all the fpecimens that I was able to fee, I doubt whether thofe who may vifit the place after me will find any quantity of

it.

DIMENSIONS OF THE CAVE OF FINGAL. Breadth of the entrance, taken at the mouth and at the level of the fea, thirty-five feet.

Height from the level of the fea to the pitch of the arch, fifty-fix feet.

Depth of the fea, oppofite to the entrance, and twelve feet diftant from it, at noon of the 27th of September, fifteen feet.

Thickness of the roof measured from the pitch of the arch without to its highest part, twenty feet.

Interior length of the cave from the entrance to the extremity, one hundred and forty feet.

Height of the tallest columns on the right fide of the entrance, forty-five feet.

Depth of the fea in the interior part of the cave, ten feet nine inches; in fome places eight feet, and towards the bottom fomewhat lefs.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MONTHLY VISITOR.

SIR,

N looking over fome old papers which lately fell into my hands, I found a fmall MS. pamphlet, containing thort extracts, fome in Latin and fome in Englith, from certain writers who flourished in this country foon after the revival of letters in Europe. One fet of

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