Beyond this ring-fence, large surfaces of water
stretched away into the farther recesses of the cave, resting on a layer
of ice, which appeared to be generally about 2 feet thick. At one of the
deeper ends of the cave, water dropped continually from the crevices of
the roof; a fact which Professor Smyth attributed to the slow advance of
the summer wave of heat through the superincumbent rock, which was only
now reaching the inner recesses of the loose lava, and liquefying the
results of the past winter. There would seem to be immense infiltration
of meteoric water on the Peak; for, notwithstanding the great depth of
rain which falls annually in a liquid or congealed form, the sides of
the mountain are not scored with the lines of water-torrents.
Though occurring in lava, this cavern is quite different from
lava-tunnels, such as the Surtshellir, which are recognised formations,
produced by the cooling of the terminal surface-crust of the stream of
lava, and the subsequent bursting forth of the molten stream within.
This, on the contrary, proved to be a smooth dome-shaped cave, running
off into three contracting lobes or tunnels which might be respectively
70, 50, and 40 feet long, and were all filled to a certain depth with
water: in the smoothness of the interior surfaces, Professor Smyth
believed that he detected the action of highly elastic gases on a
plastic material.
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