 of the
mountain.  As I have myself never penetrated into its depths, I can of
course not pretend to describe them.  Numerous have been the individuals
who, instigated by curiosity, have ventured down to immense depths,
hoping to discover an end, and indeed scarcely a week passes without
similar attempts being made either by the officers or soldiers of the
garrison, all of which have proved perfectly abortive.  No termination
has ever been reached, nor any discoveries made to repay the labour and
frightful danger incurred; precipice succeeds precipice, and abyss
succeeds abyss, in apparently endless succession, with ledges at
intervals, which afford the adventurers opportunities for resting
themselves and affixing their rope-ladders for the purpose of descending
yet further.  What is, however, most mortifying and perplexing, is to
observe that these abysses are not only before, but behind you, and on
every side; indeed, close within the entrance of the cave, on the right,
there is a gulf almost equally dark and full as threatening as that which
exists at the nether end, and perhaps contains within itself as many
gulfs and horrid caverns branching off in all directions.  Indeed, from
what I have heard, I have come to the opinion that the whole hill of
Gibraltar is honeycombed, and I have little doubt that, were it cleft
asunder, its interior would be found full of such abysses of Erebus as
those to which Saint Michael’s cave conducts.  Many valuable lives are
lost every year in these horrible places; and only a few weeks before my
visit, two sergeants, brothers, had perished in the gulf on the right
hand side of the cave, having, when at a great depth, slipped down a
precipice.  The body of one of these adventurous men is even now rotting
in the bowels of the mountain, preyed upon by its blind and noisome
worms; that of his brother was extricated.  Immediately after this
horrible accident, a gate was placed before the mouth of the cave, to
prevent individuals, and especially the reckless soldiers, from indulging