Fingals Cave is a part of the Scotland end of the Giants Causeway,
which was supposed to have once led from Ireland to the Isle of Staffa.
They say that Fin MacCoul, or Fingal, as he is called, built the Giants
Causeway. Fingal was an Irish giant--the champion hero of all the
Emerald Isle. He wanted to fight Bennandonner, another giant, so he
built the great causeway from Scotland to Ireland. It is written that
Fingal won. In tradition he is the hero of both Ireland and Scotland.
Fingals Cave is the most famous of the many natural caverns on the
Isle of Staffa, one of the western islands of Scotland. This island is
three-quarters of a mile long, and about one-third of a mile wide. No
one lives there; but every weekday during the summer a steamer takes
tourists over to see the famous cave.
There are other caverns on Staffa; but Fingals Cave is the best known.
Its columns are of basalt, and are six sided in shape. These columns
are so regular that it seems hardly possible that the force of the
waves alone could have formed them. But that is the fact; although
not many years ago some one rushed into print to say that the ancient
inhabitants of Scotland and the islands nearby had dug out all these
caverns themselves. He even gave a lecture in New York City (charging
a dollar a seat, the proceeds to go toward building a pedestal for the
Statue of Liberty) to give his theories to the world. Unfortunately for
him he did not know very much about geology, and could not prove his
theories to be correct.
It was also stated by another theorist that the columns of the Giants
Causeway were petrified growths of bamboo; but this idea too had only a
short life.
Fingals Cave was discovered in 1772 by Sir Joseph Banks, who visited
Staffa on his expedition to Iceland. The cave is on the southern face
of the island. It is 66 feet high and at the entrance 42 feet broad. It
runs back into the land a distance of 227 feet, and is only 2 feet wide
at the end.
Seals and sea birds haunt the cave, and the murmur of the sea gave it
the name in Gaelic of “The Cave of Music.” But when the weather is
stormy the cave roars in anger. This is due to the air within being
compressed by the waves, and then rushing out.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 10, SERIAL No. 10
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.