The descent of the floor of the
cave is rapid, and was covered with thin ice, at the time of his visit,
for the last third of the way: from the roof at the farther end, where
the cave is not so high as at the entrance, a congeries of icicles was
seen to hang; and in a corner on the right, completely sheltered from
the rays of the sun, there was a large mass of the same material. It was
a fine forenoon in July, and all was in a state of thaw, the icicles
dropping water, and the floor of ice covered with a thin layer of water;
while the thermometer in all parts of the cave stood at zero of
Reaumur's scale. The rock is compact unstratified limestone, in which so
many of the famous caverns of the world are found.
_The Cave of Yeermalik, in Koondooz_[101]
In the year 1840, Captain Burslem, of the 13th Light Infantry, made an
expedition from Cabul to the North-west, accompanied by Lieutenant Sturt
of the Bengal Engineers, who was afterwards killed in the terrible pass
where Lady Sale, whose daughter he had married, was shot through the
arm.
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