may be roving in the profoundest places of the sea, never seeking, and perhaps from their nature unable to seek, the upper waters, and expose themselves to the gaze of man! What glittering riches, what heaps of gold, what stores of gems, there must be scattered in lavish profusion on the ocean's lowest bed! What spoils from all climates, what works of art from all lands, have been engulfed by the insa tiable and reckless, waves! Who shall go down to examine and reclaim this uncounted and idle wealth? Who bears the keys of the deep?

12. And, oh! yet more affecting to the heart, and mysterious to the mind, what companies of human beings are locked up in that wide, weltering, unsearchable grave of the sea! Where are the bodies of those lost ones, over whom the melancholy waves alone have been chanting requiem? What shrouds were wrapped round the limbs of beauty, and of manhood, and of placid infancy, when they were laid on the dark floor of that secret tomb?

13. Where are the bones, the relics of the brave and the fearful, the good and the bad, the parent, the child, the wife, the husband, the brother, the sister, and lover, which have been tossed and scattered and buried by the washing, wasting, wandering sea? The journeying winds may sigh, as year after year they pass over their beds. The solitary rain-cloud may weep in darkness over the mingled remains which lie strewed in that unwonted cemetery.

14. But who shall tell the bereaved to what spot their affections may cling? And where shall human tears be shed throughout that solemn sepulcher? It is mystery all. When shall it be resolved? Who shall find it out? Who but He to whom the wildest waves listen reverently, and to whom all nature bows; He who shall one day speak, and be heard in ocean's profoundest caves: to whom the deep, even the lowest deep, shall give up all its dead, when the sun shall sicken, and the earth and the isles shall languish, and the heavens be rolled together like a scroll, and there shall be "no more sea."

LESSON XXXIX. 7

WIER'S CAVE IN VIRGINIA.

[The reader may note the cases of inflection where there is contrast in the following piece. See Rule 4, page 30.]

1. THIS cave derives its name from Barnet Wier, who discovered it in the year 1804. It is situated near Madison's Cave, so celebrated, though the latter can not be compared with the former.

2. There were three of us beside our guide, with lighted torches, and our loins girded, now ready to descend into the cave. We took our torches in our left hands, and entered. The mouth was so small that we could descend only by creeping, one after another. A descent of almost twenty yards brought us into the first room.

3. The cave was exceedingly cold, dark, and silent, like the chambers of death. In this manner we proceeded; now descending thirty or forty feet, now ascending as high, now creeping on our hands and knees, and now walking in large rooms, the habitations of solitude. The mountain seemed to be composed almost wholly of limestone, and by this means the cave is lined throughout with the most beautiful incrustations and stalactites" of carbonated lime, which are formed by the continual dripping of the water through the roof.

4. These stalactites are of various and elegant shapes and colors, often bearing a striking resemblance to animated nature. At one place, we saw over our heads what appeared to be a waterfall, of the most beautiful kind. Nor could the imagination be easily persuaded that it was not a reality; you could see the water boiling and dashing down, see its white spray and foam, but it was all solid limestone.

5. Thus we passed onward in this world of solitude; now stopping to admire the beauties of a single stalactite; now

a Sta-lac'tite; mineral carbonate of lime in the form of icicles, hanging from the roofs and sides of caves.

wondering at the magnificence of a large room; now creeping through narrow passages, hardly wide enough to admit the body of a man; and now walking in superb galleries, until we came to the largest room, called WASHINGTON HALL.

6. This is certainly the most elegant room I ever saw. It is about two hundred and seventy-five feet in length, about thirty-five in width, and between thirty and forty feet high. The roof and sides are very beautifully adorned by the tinsels which Nature has bestowed in the greatest profusion, and which sparkle like the diamond while surveyed by the light of torches. The floor is flat, and smooth, and solid.

7. I was the foremost of our little party in entering this room, and was not a little startled, as I approached the center, to see a figure, as it were, rising up before me out of the solid rock. It was not far from seven feet high, and corresponded in every respect to the common idea of a ghost. It was very white, and resembled a tall man clothed in a shroud. I went up to it sideways, though I could not really expect to meet a ghost in a place like this. On examination, I found it was a very beautiful piece of the carbonate of lime, very transparent, and very much in the shape of a man. This is called Washington's Statue.

8. In one room we found an excellent spring of water, which boiled up as if to slake our thirst, then sunk into the mountain and was seen no more. In another room was a noble pillar, called the Tower of Babel. It is composed entirely of the stalactites of lime, or, as the appearance would seem to suggest, of petrified water. It is about thirty feet in diameter, and a little more than ninety feet in circumference, and not far from thirty feet high. There are probably millions of stalactites in this one pillar.

9. Thus we wandered on in this world within a world, till we had visited twelve very beautiful rooms, and as many creeping places, and had now arrived at the end, a distance from our entrance of between twenty-four and twenty-five

a The Tower of Babel, spoken of in the Scriptures, was an immense structure of ma sonry on the Euphrates, six hundred feet high.

hundred feet, or, what is about its equal, half a mile from the mouth. We here found ourselves exceedingly fatigued; but our torches forbade us to tarry, and we once more turned our lingering steps towards the common world.

10. When we arrived again at Washington Hall, one of our company three times discharged a pistol, whose report was truly deafening; and as the sound reverberated and echoed through one room after another, till it died away in distance, it seemed like the moaning of spirits. We continued our wandering steps till we arrived once more at daylight, having been nearly three hours in the cavern.

11. To compare the Natural Bridge and Cave together, as objects of curiosity, is exceedingly difficult. In looking at the Bridge, we are filled with awe; at the Cavern, with delight. At the Bridge, we have several views that are awful; at the Cave, hundreds that are pleasing. At the Bridge, you stand and gaze in astonishment; at the Cave, awfulness is lost in beauty, and grandeur is dressed in a thousand captivating forms.

12. At the Bridge, you feel yourself to be looking into another world; at the Cave, you find yourself already arrived there. The one presents to us a God who is very "wonderful in working;" the other exhibits the same power, but with it is blended loveliness in a thousand forms. In each is vastGreatness constitutes the whole of one; but the other is elegant, as well as great.

ness.

LESSON XL.

NATURAL BRIDGE IN VIRGINIA.

1. ON a lovely morning, toward the close of spring, I found myself in a very beautiful part of the Great Valley of

a

a The beautiful tract of country lying between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany mountains.

Virginia. Spurred on by impatience, I beheld the sun rising in splendor, and changing the blue tints on the tops of the lofty Alleghanya mountains into streaks of purest gold, and nature seemed to smile in the freshness of beauty. A ride of about fifteen miles, and a pleasant woodland ramble of about two, brought myself and my companion to the great Natural Bridge.

2. Although I had been anxiously looking forward to this time, and my mind had been considerably excited by expectation, yet I was not altogether prepared for this visit. This great work of nature is considered by many as the second great curiosity in our country; Niagara Falls being the first. I do not expect to convey a very correct idea of this bridge, for no description can do this.

3. The Natural Bridge is entirely the work of God. It is of solid limestone, and connects two huge mountains together, by a most beautiful arch, over which there is a great wagon road. Its length from one mountain to the other is nearly eighty feet, its width about thirty-five, its thickness forty-five, and its perpendicular height above the water is not far from two hundred and twenty feet. A few bushes grow on its top, by which the traveler may hold himself as he looks over.

4. On each side of the stream, and near the bridge, are rocks projecting ten or fifteen feet over the water, and from two hundred to three hundred feet from its surface, all of limestone. The visitor cannot give so good a description of the bridge as he can of his feelings at the time. He softly creeps out on a shaggy projecting rock, and looking down a chasm from forty to sixty feet wide, he sees, nearly three hundred feet below, a wild stream, foaming and dashing against the rocks beneath, as if terrified at the rocks above.

5. This stream is called Cedar Creek. He sees under the arch trees whose height is seventy feet; and yet, as he looks down upon them, they appear like small bushes of perhaps two or three feet in height. I saw several birds fly under the arch, and they looked like insects. I threw down a stone,

• Alle-gha-ny.