The netherworld of Mendip : $b explorations in the great caverns of Somerset, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and elsewhereBaker, Ernest A. (Ernest Albert)
Science
The netherworld of Mendip : $b explorations in the great caverns of Somerset, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and elsewhere
Baker, Ernest A. (Ernest Albert)
Caves; Mendip Hills (England)
Travellers on the North-Western to Holyhead or Snowdonia are familiar
with several cave mouths that form a prominent feature in the Limestone
cliffs above Lord Dundonald's castle, near the station of Llandulas.
The most conspicuous is a vast antre near the cliff-top; and legend
has it that this opens into passages running for great distances,
and eventually descending beneath the sea. (Welsh cave-myths are not
less extravagant than those of Derbyshire and Somerset, where stories
of dogs, geese, and other animals that have made long pilgrimages
underground and come into daylight again divested of feathers or hair,
are still piously cherished by the credulous.) The name attached to
this group of caves, Tanyrogo--"under the cave"--is derived from
the Celtic ogo or ogof, a cavern, and is almost identical with the
original name of Wookey Hole in Somerset. A party of explorers from
Liverpool and Colwyn Bay have recently carried out some researches in
the Tanyrogo caves, and in those at St. George, on the other side of
Abergele; and while verifying their disbelief in the supposed extent of
the subterranean galleries, have ascertained many interesting facts as
to the formation and the geological history of both series.
A grassy terrace runs along the cliff face to the gaping portal of
the Ogo, the biggest of the Tanyrogo caves, which looks seaward and
commands a magnificent view over the coast and the Irish sea. The
prehistoric men who doubtless lived here once showed not only good
taste in the choice of a site for their residence, but a judicious eye
for military possibilities; the place is all but impregnable, save by
starvation, the only access being by this narrow ledge, which a handful
of men could defend against an army. Spanned by a noble arch is a
colossal vestibule, rock-floored and dry. But this imposing entrance
is a deception--there is nothing beyond to compare with its shape and
magnitude. We swerved to the left, and at once found ourselves treading
a floor of wet clay, which began to ascend, and soon steepened into
a high bank leading up towards the roof. Creeping under an arch, we
found ourselves in a transverse fissure that may have run as far as the
legends pleased, but grew too narrow in a few feet for any human being
to penetrate farther. A few rudimentary stalactites and a crust of pure
white calcite adorned one small grotto; the rest was bare rock walls
and rugged arches, springing here and there high into the darkness,
in fissures that must reach very nearly to the summit of the cliff. A
branch passage dwindled away still more quickly, and so did a minor
opening that looks like a side door to the main entrance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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