They have large belief in the existence and intercommunication of numerous vast caverns in the Peak, one of which, on the north coast, is said to communicate with the ice-cavern, notwithstanding 8 miles of horizontal distance, and 11,000 feet of vertical depth.

The truth of this particular article of their creed has been recently tested by several worthy and reverend hidalgos, who drove a dog into the entrance of the cavern on the sea-coast, in the belief that he would eventually come to light again in the ice-cave: he was accordingly found lying there some days after, greatly fatigued and emaciated, having in the interval accomplished the 11,000 feet of subterranean climbing.

How he could enter, from below, a water-logged cave, does not appear to have been explained.
FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 98: The _Caves of Szelicze_ are mentioned in Murray's _Handbook of Southern Germany_ (1858, p.

555), where the following account is given of them:--'During the winter a great quantity of ice accumulates in these caves, which is not entirely melted before the commencement of the ensuing winter.

In the summer months they are consequently filled with vast masses of ice broken up into a thousand fantastic forms, and presenting by their lucidity a singular contrast to the sombre vaults and massive stalactites of the cavern.' The _Drachenhoehle_ (Murray, 1.