The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852Various
History
The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
If you enter one of the caves revealed in the distance, you find
yourself in a deep ravine, with huge piles of gray rock jutting out more
and more, till they nearly meet at top. Looking upward, through this
narrow aperture, you see, high, high above you, a vaulted roof of
_black_ rock, studded with brilliant spar, like constellations in the
sky, seen at midnight, from the deep clefts of a mountain. This is
called the Star Chamber. It makes one think of Schiller's grand
description of William Tell sternly waiting for Gessler, among the
shadows of the Alps, and of Wordsworth's picture of
"Yorkshire dales
Among the rocks and winding scars,
Where deep and low the hamlets lie,
Beneath their little patch of sky,
And little lot of stars."
[Illustration: THE STAR CHAMBER.]
In this neighborhood is a vast, dreary chamber, which Stephen, the
guide, called Bandit's Hall, the first moment his eye rested on it; and
the name is singularly expressive of its character. Its ragged roughness
and sullen gloom are indescribable. The floor is a mountainous heap of
loose stones, and not an inch of even surface could be found on roof or
walls. Imagine two or three travellers, with their lamps, passing
through this place of evil aspect. The deep, suspicions-looking recesses
and frightful crags are but partially revealed in the feeble light. All
at once, a Bengal Light blazes up, and every black rock and frowning
cliff stands out in the brilliant glare. The contrast is sublime beyond
imagination. It is as if a man had seen the hills and trees of this
earth only in the dim outline of a moonless night, and they should, for
the first time, be revealed to him in the gushing glory of the morning
sun. But the greatest wonder in this region of the cave, is Mammoth
Dome--a giant among giants. It is so immensely high and vast, that three
of the most powerful Bengal Lights illuminate it very imperfectly. That
portion of the ceiling which becomes visible, is three hundred feet
above your head, and remarkably resembles the aisles of Westminster
Abbey. It is supposed that the top of this dome is near the surface of
the ground. Another route from the Devil's Council Chamber conducts you
to a smooth, level path, called Pensacola Avenue. Here are numerous
formations of crystallized gypsum, but not as beautiful or as various as
are found farther on. From various slopes and openings, caves above and
below are visible. The Mecca's shrine of this pilgrimage is Angelica's
Grotto, completely lined and covered with the largest and richest dog's
tooth spar. A person who visited the place, a few years since, laid his
sacrilegious hands upon it, while the guide's back was turned towards
whim. He coolly demolished a magnificent mass of spar, sparkling most
conspicuously on the very centre of the arch, and wrote his own
insignificant name in its place. This was _his_ fashion of securing
immortality! It is well that fairies and giants are powerless in the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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