Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1860 edition. Excerpt: ...seen the Adelsberg Caverns in Carniola before he visited Smoo, he would not have written quite so glowing an account of its wonders. The cave is close to the road, which in fact passes over it. A steep path leads to a creek between two lofty walls of rock, and when at the bottom you have before you a vast arch 53 feet high, 110 feet wide, and 200 feet deep. Above the crown of the arch there are twenty-seven feet of precipitous limestone rock, making the entire height to the summit 80 feet. The interior of the cave, which is even more lofty than its mouth, is supported by a huge pillar with a gigantic capital. Standing at the extreme end, the effect of the light is very striking, and as the evening deepened, for it was late when we visited it, the scene increased in solemnity. Like most limestone caves, that of Smoo has its stream. You hear it falling into a pool at the base of an inner cave, and see it flowing out and into the creek. The noise of this subterraneous waterfall echoing through the caverns, adds greatly to the effect of the singular scene, and those who have not seen Adelsberg would probably be repaid by seeing the cataract itself. To do this you must engage boatmen, who charge fifteen shil Q lings for ferrying you across the little pool in the inner cave, besides another charge for lights, but whether in this case le jeu vaut la chandelle I cannot say, as we were satisfied by seeing the wonders of the great Cavern. The botanist will be pleased to find the delicate and beautiful plant, Dryas Octopetala, or mountain avens, mantling the slope at the upper end of the Cavern, and the geologist will look at the limestone of Smoo with greater interest when he knows that it contains curious fossils. This discovery was made in 1854...
