We more than once approached
the entrance to this appalling cavern, but I never fairly entered
it, though two or three of my party did. I lost my breath
entirely; and the pain at my chest was so severe, that not all my
curiosity could enable me to endure it.
What was that cavern of the winds, of which we heard of old,
compared to this? A mightier spirit than Aeolus reigns here.
Nor was this spot of dread and danger the only one in which we
found ourselves alone. The path taken by "the company" to the
shantee, which contained the "book of names" was always the same;
this wound down the steep bank from the gate of the hotel garden,
and was rendered tolerably easy by its repeated doublings; but it
was by no means the best calculated to manage to advantage the
pleasure of the stranger in his approach to the spot. All
others, however, seemed left for us alone.
During our stay we saw the commencement of another staircase,
intended to rival in attraction that at present in use; it is but
a few yards from it, and can in no way, I think, contribute to
the convenience of the descent. The erection of the central
shaft of this spiral stair was a most tremendous operation, and
made me sick and giddy as I watched it. After it had been made
fast at the bottom, the carpenters swung themselves off the
rocks, by the means of ropes, to the beams which traversed it;
and as they sat across them, in the midst of the spray and the
uproar, I thought I had never seen life periled so wantonly.
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