Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1863-11-25

-. -
abyss. drew back theb Sith shudder, and
fairly ran away from the ffightfu place
Stopping at neat hotel in the vicinity Of
the Causeway, we engaged boats crew and
descended the steep hill TO the shore. The
sea was perfectly calm, ghe boatmen said, but
great masses of water Dame rushing in be-
tween the big, black rocks which studded the.
coast, with power and roar that would
have discomposed aweak nerved dperson, but
feeling very confident that the boatmen would
not knowingly, put their lives or ours in peril
for the few shillngs they wereto receive as fare,
we stepped in, and after few sturdy strokes
of the oars, we we're safely through the break
ers, on the deep and heaving sea Turning
around the rocky headland at our left, VIC laid
upon our oars and permitted Che waves to car
ry us along into cavern, which their action
has followed out Of the solid rock. At one
moment they lifted as up nearly to the roof
the next left as apparently almost stranded
upon the floor, and the echo from their beat
ing was like near and heavy thunder 1t is a
noisy and horrible place, and our curiosity in
regard to it, was satisfied long before we had
penetrated as far as the boats crew were will
ing to take US. Pulling out and around the
point again, we were in few minutes in sight
ed TO be. Almost any ordinary stone pier or
breakwater built out into Lake Erie is quite
as curious and wonderful as it was at the dis
tance from which we then saw it. We passed
on by it to inspect a singular rock on the other
side of the little bay, on the outer extremity
of which, high up in the air, stands three col
umns of stone, built by the Creator, called,
not very appropriately, the Chimney Tops.
One of the great Spanish Armada, mistaking
them for the towers of Dunluce Castle, bonn
barded them for some time, and venturing too
near the shore went TO pieces upon the rocks.
We looked at the columns for a few minutes,
and at the thousands of sea gulls which have
their nests there, and which few about us,
shrieking out their Indignation at us for
breaking in upon their solitude, and then
pulled in and landed upon the Causeway, the
wonders of which we then began to see
The boatmen told us that the great Irish
Giant, FinlMcCoul, hearing there was giant
in Scotland bigger and stronger than he de-
termined to construct a causeway across the
Nosth Channel, that he might go over and
have bout with him. He had only completed
about six hundred feet OF it, when one day he
saw the Caledonian monster, who had also
heard Of his Irish rival, loading across, and
heading directly for the spot where Fin was
at work. Frightened almost out of his wits
Fin ran hastily home, and, jumping into bed
l told his wife to cover him up with blanket,
. and when the Scotchman came, to tell him he
was Fins baby. She did so, and the Scot
stopping for moment to rub his stupid head
1 which he had almost cracked against the lin
Il tel as he entered, turned and fed back to hi,
a home, protesting that if Fins babies wer,
i of such size he had not the least desire il
l. ha u,orld IN tnaat Rim b;noolf Ei,, Of oonroa
> discontinued his work on the causeway; and
this according to the boatmen, is the exceed
ingy credible ttory from which this marvel O
8 nature gets its name.
d We found it to be long mole or pier, pro
L bably a hundred feet wide, extending out iron
n the shore distance of six hundred feet--itt
extremity gradually descending into, and dis
y appearing beneath the sea. AS have befor,
Hnted, there is nothing in this, as seen from
D. : distance, that is at all wonderful, but wheI
8 I'VE came to observe that it was composed o.
l. Hexquistely shaped pillars, varying from one
n TO two feet in diameter, having each from toui
n to eight sides, standing nearly perpendicula
A and SO closely together that water cannot pas
down between them, and yet so perfectly sep
arate and distinct that one can be taker
! away without at all interfering with, or injur
ing those adjacent to it, and to remember tha
! the God OF Heaven was its sole architect anC
9 builder, our captious tongues were hushed
It and our souls were filed with a solemn aw,
such as Moses must have felt before the burn
ing bush.
! 1t is estimated there are forty thousand o
II these columns standing together thus, th'
) tallest Of which is thirtythree feet in height
r Each one of them is composed of several dis
s tinct joints which fit closely into each other
r their upper ends being concave, their lowe
y convex We walked from one end of tn
g Causeway to the other over the heads of th
IS pillars-drank out OF the Giants Well, tin
/ fountain which forces its way up between tn,
e joints Of two of the columns, whose fresh
" sweet waters are said to have some wonderful
medicinal properties-sat in the Wiship
u Chair near which, it is said the fairies Away
u are, to hear and grant three wishes to ever
T. one who comes TO sit upon it, and then W
I, turned TO look and wonder again.
e Said to the guide, what did God make thi
d for ? Reverently and appropriately he replied
y ''To show us He could build whatever II
h chose, without any help from us"