Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

344 CAMPING AND WOODCRAFTand Cotton In English. The latter thus testifiesinverse:" 'I myself, with half the Peak surrounded,Eight hundred, four score and four yards havesounded;And though of these four score turned back wet,The plummet drew and found no bottom yet!*to be 300 feet''In other vrords, the poet's measurement foundno bottom at the astonishing depth of 2,652 feet^Probably Mr. Cotton let the rope coil on the bottom,mistaking the weight of it for that of theplummet—a mistake actually made by a civil engineerin Kentucky, vrho reported a pitdeep, vs^hich afterward was proved to be but 90feet. Concerning the Eldon Hole, it is furtherstated that the Earl of Leicester hired a man todescend, who, after going down 750 feet, wasdrawn up a raving maniac, and died in eight days.Very likely he imitated the Knight of La Mancha,when In the Spanish cave, who ensconced himselfon a convenient shelf, and let the rope dangle asfar as It might below, while he dreamed the restof the adventure. At all events when Mr. Lloyd, amember of the Royal Society, took it in hand tosound the bottom of the Eldon Hole, he found itat the exact depth of 186 feet, and told the storyIn the Transactions of the Society."When the roof at both ends of a cavern chambefdrops in, leaving the central arch Intact, the resultIs a ''natural bridge," such as the noted onein Rockbridge County, Virginia, the lower face ofwhich is 160 feet, and the upper surface 215 feetabove the water of Cedar Creek. Larger onesother localities.are found InWhen both ends of a cavern gallery or long corridorfall in, and the bridge thus formed Is verywide, we have a "natural tunnel." I know of oneon a fork of the Current River In Missouri, wherethe stream pierces a mountain ridge. Near the