Red Wing sentinel. [volume] (Red Wing, M.T. [i.e. Minn.]) 1855-1861, 1859-02-26
THE CAVE OF DEATH.

From Hugh Miller's posthumons work en-
titled the " Cruise of,he Betsey," we take
the following interesting account Of the
Cave in which the whole people Of the Is
land Of Egg, one Of the Hebrides, were
smoked to death by neighboring clan,
the McLeod.]
s We struck light and worming our.
selves through the narrow entrance
gained the interior-a true rock gal
lery, vastly more roomy and lofty
than one could have anticipated from
the mean vestibule placed in front cf it
Its extreme length we find to be two
hundred and sixty feet; it's extreme
breadth twenty-seven feet; lis height
where the roof rises highest, from
eighteen to twenty feet. The cave
seems to have owed its origin to two
distinct causes. The trap rocks OF
each side of the vault like crevict
which separates them are greatly de
composed as if by the moisture from
above; and directly in the line Of tn.
crevice must the surf have charged
wave after wave, ere the last upheava
of the land. When the Dogs one a
Dunolly existed as sea stock, skirteG
with alge the breakers on this shore
must have dashed every tide through
the opening of the cavern, and scooped
out by handfalls the decomposing tral
within. -
The process of decomposition, anG
consequent enlargement, is still going
on inside but there is no longer tide
to sweep away the disintegrated frag
ments. Where the roof rises highest
the floor is blocked up with acculnula
items Of bulky masses that. have drop
ped from above; and it is covered
over its entire area by stratum O
earthly rubbish, which has fallen from
the sides and ceiling in such abund
ance that it covers up the straw bed.
Of the persisted islanders, which still
exist beneath, as a brown moulderina
felt to the depth of five or eight inches
Never yet was tragedy enacted on :
gloomier theatre. An uncertain twi
light glimmers gray at the entrance o
the narrow vestibule, but all within 70
two hundred feet is black as witt
Egyptian darkness As we passed a
with our feeble light along the dar1
mouldering wall and roof, which ali
sorbed' every struggling ray that reach
ed them over the dingy foor,e noop
and; damp, the place called to recollee
tion that hall in Roman story, hum
and carpeted with black, into whic
'lDomitan once thrust his Senate in
frolio to read there own names on tn
cofin-lids placed against the wall
The darkness seemed to press upon u
from every side as if it were dens
lefty fluid, out of which our light ha
scoopcd pailful or two and that, wa
rushing in 10 supply the vacuum and tn
only objects we saw distinctly v;s:;h v;;:;hl Il
were each others heads anu faces, an
the lighter parts Of our dress. q 5;
! The floor, for about one hundre
! feet inwards from the narrow yestibul<
resembles that of a acharnel-house. A
almost every step we came upon heap
of human bodies grouped together, a
1.-THE paslmist graphically describes, ga
when one cutteth and cleaveth WOO
to the earth" They are Of brown
ish, earthly hue, here they are tinge,
with green the skulls, with the ez
ception of a few broken fragments
have disappeared; for travellers in TIL
Hcbrides have Of late years been nu
merous and curious; and many q mu
seum--that at Abbotsford among III
rest-exhibits, in grinning skull, it
memorial Of 1.-The massacre Of Egg
We find, too, further marks Of visitor
in the single bones separated from tn
heaps, and scattered over the area