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THE most celebrated cave in the United States, is that in Rockingham county, Virginia, known by the name of Madison’s Cave. It is in the heart of a mountain, about two hundred feet high, which is so steep on one side, that a person standing on the top, might easily throw a pebble into the river which flows round the base; the opposite side of it is, however, very easy of ascent, and on this side the path leading to the cavern runs, excepting for the last twenty yards, when it suddenly turns along the steep part of the mountain, which is extremely rugged, and covered with immense rocks and trees from top to bottom. The mouth of the cavern, on this steep side, about two thirds of the way up, is guarded by a huge pendant stone, which seems ready to fall every instant; it is impossible to stoop under it and not reflect with a degree of awe, that, were it to drop, nothing could save you from perishing within the dreary walls of that mansion to which it affords an entrance. The description which follows, is from the Travels of Mr. Weld.

‘Preparatory to entering, the guide, whom I had procured from a neighboring house, lighted the ends of three or four splinters of pitch pine, a large bundle of which he had brought with him: they burn out very fast, but while they last are most excellent torches. The fire he brought along with him, by the means of a bit of green hickory wood, which, when once lighted, will burn slowly without any blaze, till the whole is consumed.

‘The first apartment you enter is about twenty-five feet high, and fifteen broad, and extends a considerable way to the right and left, the floor ascending toward the former; here it is very moist, from the quantity of water continually trickling from the roof. Fahrenheit’s thermometer, which stood at sixty-seven degrees in the air, fell to sixty-one degrees in this room. A few yards to the left, on the side opposite to you on entering, a passage presents itself, which leads to a sort of anti-chamber, from whence you proceed to the sound room, so named from the prodigious reverberation of the sound of a voice or musical instrument on the inside. This room is about twenty feet square; it is arched at the top, and the sides of it as well as of the apartment which you first enter, are beautifully ornamented with stalactites. Returning from hence into the anti-chamber, and afterwards taking two or three turns to the right and left, you enter a long passage about thirteen feet wide, and, perhaps, about fifteen feet in height, perpendicularly; but if it was measured from the floor to the highest part of the roof obliquely, the distance would be found much greater, as the walls on both sides slope very considerably, and finally meet at the top.

‘This passage descends very rapidly, and is, I should suppose, about sixty yards long. Towards the end it narrows considerably, and terminates in a pool of clear water, about three or four feet deep. How far this pool extends, it is impossible to say. A canoe was once brought down by a party for the purpose of examination, but they said, that after proceeding a little way the canoe would not float, and they were forced to return. Their fears most probably led them to fancy so. I fired a pistol with a ball over the water, but the report was echoed from the after part of the cavern, and not from the part beyond the water, so that I should not suppose the passage extended much farther than could be traced with the eye. The walls of this passage consist of a solid rock of limestone on each side, which appears to have been separated by some convulsion. The floor is of a deep sandy earth, and it has repeatedly been dug up for the purpose of getting salt-petre, with which the earth is strongly impregnated. The earth, after being dug up, is mixed with water, and when the grosser particles fall to the bottom, the water is drawn off and evaporated; from the residue the salt-petre is procured. There are many other caverns in this neighborhood; and also farther to the westward in Virginia; from all of them great quantities of salt-petre are thus obtained. The gunpowder made with it, in the back country forms a principal article of commerce, and is sent to Philadelphia in exchange for European manufactures.

‘About two thirds of the way down this long passage just described, is a large aperture in the wall on the right, leading to another apartment, the bottom of which is about ten feet below the floor of the passage, and it is no easy matter to get down into it, as the sides are very steep and extremely slippery. This is the largest and most beautiful room in the whole cavern; it is somewhat of an oval form, about sixty feet in length, thirty in breadth, and in some parts nearly fifty feet high. The petrifactions formed by the water dropping from above are most beautiful, and hang down from the ceiling in the form of elegant drapery, the folds of which are similar to what those of large blankets or carpets would be, if suspended by one corner in a lofty room. If struck with a stick, a deep hollow sound is produced, which echoes through the vaults of the cavern.

‘In other parts of this room the petrifactions have commenced at the bottom, and formed in pillars of different heights; some of them reach nearly to the roof. If you go to a remote part of this apartment, and leave a person with a lighted torch moving about amidst these pillars, a thousand imaginary forms present themselves, and you might almost fancy yourself in the infernal regions, with spectres and monsters on every side. The floor of this room slopes down gradually from one end to the other, and terminates in a pool of water, which appears to be on a level with that at the end of the long passage; from their situation, it is most probable that they communicate together. The thermometer which I had with me stood in the remotest part of this chamber, at fifty-five degrees. From hence we returned to the mouth of the cavern, and on coming to the light it appeared as if we had really been in the infernal regions, for our faces, hands, and clothes were covered with soot from the smoke of the pine torches which are so often carried in. The smoke from the pitch-pine is particularly thick and heavy. Before this cave was much visited, and the walls blackened with smoke, its beauty, I was told by some of the old inhabitants, was great indeed; for the petrifactions on the roof and walls are all of a dead white kind.’

Wyer’s Cave is situated in the same county with the preceding, and is equally remarkable. Its entrance is narrow and difficult, and when first discovered was impeded by perpendicular columns of stalactites, which have since been removed. After advancing at first in a horizontal course, we descend into an echoing cavern, by a ladder fifteen or twenty feet in length. Over our heads hang silvery white stalactites, while we are surrounded by pillars of stalagmites, and rugged walls incrusted with a beautiful brown spar. The floor is composed of ledges of rocks, and presents rather an uneven pathway.

Advancing through a narrow passage in the rocks, we enter still other apartments, resembling the first in the beauty of their formations, but of different shape and extent. The sparry incrustations assume a thousand fantastic figures, sparkling with light, and more like the wonders of fairy land, than the original productions of nature. This cave is a mile and a half in extent, varying in perpendicular height from three to forty feet, and in breadth from two to thirty. Its dividing branches are numerous. Blue limestone is the base of the whole cave; every where covered with incrustations of carbonates. In some places the uneven sides of the rocks are quite covered with white crystals of the carbonate of lime, and appear like banks of salt. Sometimes the pavement sparkles as a floor of diamonds; and again the pathway is pebbled, and resembles the deserted bed of a river. It is impossible to convey any idea of the number and variety of shapes which the stalactites assume; resembling every thing in nature, and in the worlds of imagination, they are still unlike every thing but themselves.

The Nicojack Cave is situated in the Cherokee country, at Nicojack, the north-western angle in the map of Georgia. We believe it was first fully described by the Rev. E. Cornelius. It is twenty miles south-west of the Look-Out Mountain, and half a mile from the south bank of the Tennessee river. The Raccoon Mountain, in which it is situated, here fronts to the north-east. Immense layers of horizontal limestone form a precipice of considerable height. In this precipice the cave commences; not however with an opening of a few feet, as is common; but with a mouth fifty feet high, and one hundred and sixty wide. Its roof is formed by a solid and regular layer of limestone, having no support but the sides of the cave, and as level as the floor of a house. The entrance is partly obstructed by piles of fallen rocks, which appear to have been dislodged by some great convulsion. From its entrance, the cave consists chiefly of one grand excavation through the rocks, preserving for a great distance the same dimensions as at its mouth.

What is more remarkable than all, it forms for the whole distance it has yet been explored, a walled and vaulted passage for a stream of cool and limpid water, which, where it leaves the cave, is six feet deep and sixty feet wide. A few years since, Col. James Ore, of Tennessee, commencing early in the morning, followed the course of this creek in a canoe, for three miles. He then came to a fall of water, and was obliged to return, without making any further discovery. Whether he penetrated three miles of the cave or not, it is a fact he did not return till the evening, having been busily engaged in his subterranean voyage for twelve hours. He stated that the course of the cave, after proceeding some way to the south-west, became south; and south-east by south, the remaining distance.

There is a remarkable cave or grotto, situated on a bluff of limestone, on the south bank of the Holston river, in East Tennessee, which has been well described by Mr. Kain, in an article in Silliman’s Journal. The bluff is perhaps one hundred feet high, and fifty wide. The grotto is a large natural excavation of the rock, sixty feet high and thirty feet wide. It is very irregular, and to the very top bears marks of the attrition of waves. The river to have been so high, must have covered the valley through which it now winds its quiet way. The excavation gradually diminishes in size as you proceed backward, till one hundred feet from the entrance it terminates. A remarkable projection of the rock divides the back part into two stories.

This grotto, whose walls are hung with ivy, and the bluff crowned with cedars, and surrounded by an aged forest, on which the vine clambers most luxuriantly, viewed from the river which winds slowly around it, and reflects its image, is more than beautiful: it is even venerable. But what renders it most interesting to many visitors, is a number of rude paintings, which were, as tradition reports, left on it by the Cherokee Indians. These Indians are known to have made this cave a resting place as they passed up and down the river Holston. These paintings are still distinct, though they have faded somewhat within my remembrance. They consist of representations of the sun and moon, of a man, of birds, fishes, &c. They are all of red paint, and resemble, in this respect, the paintings on Paint Rock, near the warm springs.

Mammoth Cave is situated near the Green river in Kentucky, the entrance to which is by a pit forty feet deep, and one hundred and twenty in circumference. At the bottom of this pit is the mouth of the cave, which is open to the north, and is from forty to fifty feet in height, and thirty in width, for upwards of forty rods, when it becomes not more than ten feet wide and five feet high. ‘However,’ says Dr. Wood, ‘this continues but a short distance, when it expands to thirty or forty feet in width, and is about twenty feet in height, for about one mile, until you come to the first hopper, where salt-petre is manufactured. Thence it is about forty feet in width, and eighty in height, till you arrive at the second hopper two miles from the mouth. The loose limestone has been laid up into handsome walls on either side, almost the whole distance from the entrance to the second hopper. The road is hard, and as smooth as a flag pavement. The walls of the cavern are perpendicular in every passage that I traversed; the arches are regular in every part, and have bid defiance even to earthquakes. As you advance into the cave, the avenue leads from the second hopper west one mile, then south-west to the chief city, which is six miles distant from the entrance. This avenue is from sixty to one hundred feet high, and about the same broad, the whole distance from the second hopper, until you come to the cross-roads or chief city; and is nearly upon a level, the floor or bottom being covered with loose limestone and salt-petre earth. When I reached the immense area, (chief city,) containing upward of eight acres, without a single pillar to support the arch, which is entire over the whole, I was struck dumb with astonishment, and can give but a very faint idea of its splendor. Nothing under heaven can be more sublime and grand than this place, covered with one solid arch, at least one hundred feet in height, and to all appearance entire. After entering the chief city, I perceived five avenues leading out of it from sixty to one hundred feet in width, and from forty to eighty in height. The walls (all of stone) are arched, being from forty to eighty feet of perpendicular height, before the arch commences.

‘The next avenue which I traversed, after cutting arrows on the stones under our feet, pointing to the mouth of the cave, was one that led us in a southerly direction for more than two miles. We then left it, and took another that led us east, then north, more than two miles farther; and at last, in our windings, were brought out by another avenue into the chief city again, after having traversed more than five miles through different avenues. We rested ourselves for a few minutes on some limestone strata near the centre of this gloomy area, and having refreshed ourselves, and trimmed our lamps, again took our departure through an avenue almost due north, and parallel with the avenue leading from the chief city to the mouth of the cave, which we continued for more than two miles, when we entered the second city. This is covered with one arch nearly two hundred feet high in the centre, and very similar to the chief city, except in the number of avenues leading from it, this having but two. We passed through it over a very considerable rise in the centre, and descended through an avenue bearing to the east about three hundred rods, when we came upon a third area, about one hundred feet square and fifty in height, which had a pure and delightful stream of water, issuing from the side of the wall, about thirty feet high, and which fell upon some broken stones, and was afterwards entirely lost to our view. After passing this beautiful sheet of water a few yards, we came to the end of this passage.

‘We then returned about one hundred yards, and entered an avenue (over a considerable mass of stone) to our right, which led us south, through an uncommonly black avenue, something more than a mile, when we ascended a very steep eminence, about sixty yards, which carried us within the walls of a fourth city, which is not inferior to the second city, having an arch that covers at least six acres. In this last avenue, the farther end of which must be at least four miles from the chief city, and ten from the mouth of the cave, are twenty large piles of saltpetre earth on one side of the avenue, and broken limestone heaped up on the other, evidently the work of human hands. I had expected, from the course of my needle, that this avenue would have carried us round to the chief city; but was sadly disappointed, when I found the end a few hundred yards from the fourth city, which caused us to retrace our steps; and not having been so particular in marking the different entrances as I ought, we were very much bewildered, and once completely lost for fifteen or twenty minutes.

‘At length we found our way, and, weary and faint, entered the chief city at ten at night; however, much fatigued as I was, I determined to explore the cavern as long as my lights held out. We now entered the fifth and last avenue from the chief city, which carried us south-east about nine hundred yards, when we entered the fifth city, whose arch covers upwards of four acres of level ground, strewed with broken limestone. Fire beds of uncommon size, with brands of cane lying around them, are interspersed throughout this city. We crossed over to the opposite side, and entered an avenue that carried us east about two hundred and fifty rods; when, finding nothing remarkable in this passage, we turned back, and crossed a massy pile of limestone in the mouth of a large avenue, which I noticed but a few yards from this last-mentioned city as I came out of it. After some difficulty in passing over this mass of limestone, we entered a large avenue, whose walls were the most perfect of any that we had seen, running almost due south for five hundred rods, and very level and straight. When at the end of this avenue, and while I was sketching a plan of the cave, one of my guides, who had been some time groping among the broken stones, called out, requesting me to follow him. I gathered up my papers and compass, and also giving the guide who sat with me orders to remain where he was, until we returned, and moreover to keep his lamp in good order, I followed after the first, who had entered a vertical passage just large enough to admit his body. We continued to step from one stone to another, until at last, after much difficulty, from the smallness of the passage, which is about forty feet in height, we entered upon the side of a chamber eighteen hundred feet in circumference, and whose arch is one hundred and fifty feet high in the centre. After having marked arrows, pointing downwards, upon the slate-stones around the little passage through which we had winded, we walked nearly to the centre of this area. It was past midnight when I entered this chamber of eternal darkness, where “all things are hushed, and nature’s self lies dead.” I must acknowledge I felt a shivering horror at my situation, when, I looked back upon the different avenues through which I had passed, since I entered the cave at eight in the morning; and “at time of night, when church-yards groan,” to be buried several miles in the dark recesses of this awful cavern, the grave, perhaps, of thousands of human beings—gave me no very pleasant emotions. With the guide who was now with me, I took the only avenue leading from this chamber, and traversed it for the distance of a mile in a northerly direction, when my lamps forbade me going any farther, as they were nearly exhausted. The avenue, or passage, was as large as any that we had entered; and how far we might have entered, had our lights held out, is unknown.

‘It is supposed that Green river, a stream navigable several hundred miles, passes over three branches of this cave. It was nearly one o’clock in the morning, when we descended the passage of the chimney, as it is called, to the guide who sat on the rocks. He was quite alarmed at our long absence, and was heard by us a long time before we reached the passage to descend to him, hallooing with all his might, fearing we had lost our track in the ruins above. Very near the vertical passage, and not far from where I had left my guide sitting, I found some very beautiful specimens of soda, which I brought out with me. We returned over piles of saltpetre earth and fire beds, out of one avenue into another, until at last, with great fatigue and a dim light, we entered the walls of the chief city; where, for the last time, we trimmed our lamps, and entered the spacious avenue that lends to the second hopper. I found, when in the last-mentioned large avenue, or upper chamber, many curiosities; such as Glauber salts, Epsom salts, flint, yellow ochre, spar of different kinds, and some petrifactions, which I brought out together with the mummy, which was found at the second hopper. We happily arrived at the mouth of the cave at five in the morning, nearly exhausted and worn down with nineteen hours’ continued fatigue. I have described to you hardly one half of the cave, as the avenues between the mouth of the cave and the second hopper have not been named. There is a passage in the main avenue, about sixty rods from the entrance, like that of a trap-door. By sliding aside a large flat stone, you can descend sixteen or eighteen feet into a very narrow defile, where the passage comes upon a level, and winds about in such a manner us to pass under the main passage, without having any communication with it; and at last opens into the large passages, just beyond the second hopper. It is called the Glauber salt room, from salts of that kind being found there. There is also the sick room, the bat room, and the flint room, all of which are large, and some of them quite long. The last that I shall mention is a very winding avenue, which branches off at the second hopper, running west, and south-west, for more than two miles. This is called the haunted chamber, from the echo of the sound made in it. The arch of this avenue is very beautifully incrusted with limestone spar; and in many places the columns of spar are truly elegant, extending from the ceiling to the floor. I discovered in this avenue a very high dome, in or near the centre of the arch, apparently fifty feet high, hung in rich drapery, festooned in the most fanciful manner for six or eight feet above the hangings, and in colors the most rich and brilliant. The columns of spar, and the stalactites in this chamber, are extremely romantic in their appearance, with the reflection of one or two lights. There is a cellar formed of this spar, called Wilkins’s armed chair, which is very large, standing in the middle of the avenue, and is encircled with many smaller ones. Columns of spar, fluted and studded with knobs of spar and stalactites, drapery of various colors, superbly festooned and hung in the most graceful manner, are shewn with the greatest brilliancy from the reflection of lamps.

‘A part of the haunted chamber lies directly over the bat room, which passes under it, without having any connection with it. I was led into a very narrow defile on the left side of this chamber, and about a hundred yards from Wilkins’s armed chair, over the side of a smooth limestone rock, ten or twelve feet, which we passed with much precaution, for had we slipped from our hold, we had gone to that “bourne whence no traveller returns,” if I may judge from a cataract of water, whose dismal sound we heard at a very considerable distance in this pit, and nearly under us. However, we crossed in safety, clinging fast to the wall, and winding under the haunted chamber, and through a very narrow passage for thirty or forty yards, when our course was west, and the passage twenty or thirty feet in width, and from ten to eighteen feet high, for more than a mile. The air was pure and delightful in this, as well as in other parts of the cave. At the farther end of this avenue, we came upon a reservoir of water, very clear and delightful to the taste, apparently having neither inlet nor outlet. Within a few yards of this reservoir of water, on the right hand of the cave, there is an avenue leading to the north-west. We had entered it but forty feet, when we came to several columns of the most brilliant spar, sixty or seventy feet in height, and almost perpendicular, which stand in basins of water, that comes trickling down their sides, then passes off silently from the basin, and enters the cavities of stone, without being seen again. These columns of spar, and the basins they rest in, for splendor and beauty, surpass every similar work of art I ever saw. We passed by these columns, and entered a small but beautiful chamber, whose walls were about twenty feet apart, and the arch not more than seven feet high, white as white-wash could have made it; the floor was level as far as I could see, which was not a great distance, as I found many pit-holes in my path, that appeared to have been lately sunk, and which induced me to return. We returned by the beautiful pool of water, which is called the pool of Clitorius, after the Fons Clitorius of the classics, which was so pure and delightful to the taste, that, after drinking of it, a person had no longer a taste for wine. On our way back to the narrow defile, I found some difficulty in keeping my lights, for the bats were so numerous and continually in our faces, that it was next to impossible to get along in safety. I brought this trouble on myself, by my own want of foresight, for as we were moving on, I noticed a large number of these bats hanging by their hind legs to the arch, which was not a foot higher than my head. I took my cane and gave a sweep the whole length of it, when down they fell; but soon, like so many imps, they tormented us until we reached the narrow defile, when they left us. We returned by Wilkins’s armed chair, and back to the second hopper, where I found the mummy before-mentioned, and which had been placed there by Mr. Wilkins, for preservation in another cave.’

Indiana Cave.—In the southern part of Indiana there is a remarkable cave, which abounds in Epsom Salts, and which is thus described by Mr. Adams.—‘The hill in which it is situated, is about four hundred feet high, from the base to the most elevated point, and the prospect to the south-east, in a clear day, is exceedingly fine, commanding an extensive view of the hills and valleys bordering on Big Blue river. The top of the hill is covered principally with oak and chesnut. The side to the south-east is mantled with cedar. The entrance is about midway from the base to the summit, and the surface of the cave preserves in general about that elevation; although I must acknowledge this to be conjectural, as no experiments have been made with a view to ascertain the fact. It is probably owing to this middle situation of the cave, that it is much drier than is common.

‘After entering the cave by an aperture twelve or fifteen feet wide, and in height, in one place, three or four feet, you descend with easy and gradual steps into a large and spacious room, which continues about a quarter of a mile pretty near the same in appearance, varying in height from eight to thirty feet, and in breadth from ten to twenty. In this distance the roof is in some places arched, in others a plane, and in one place, particularly, it resembles an inside view of the roof of a house. At the distance above-named the cave forks, but the right hand fork soon terminates, while the left rises by a flight of rocky stairs nearly ten feet high, into another story, and pursues a course at this place nearly south-east. Here the roof commences a regular arch, the height of which from the floor varies from five to eight feet, and the width of the cave from six to twelve feet—which continues to what is called the Creeping Place, from the circumstance of having to crawl ten or twelve feet into the next large room. From this place to the Pillar, a distance of about one mile and a quarter, the visitor finds an alternate succession of large and small rooms variously decorated; sometimes mounting elevated points by gradual or difficult ascents, and again descending as far below; sometimes travelling on a pavement, or climbing over huge piles of rocks, detached from the roof by some convulsion of nature, and thus continues his route until he arrives at the Pillar.

‘The aspect of this large and stately white column, as it heaves in sight from the dim reflection of the torches, is grand and impressive. Visitors have seldom pushed their inquiries further than two hundred or three hundred yards beyond this pillar. This column is about fifteen feet in diameter, from twenty to thirty feet in height, and regularly reeded from the top to the bottom. In the vicinity of this spot are some inferior pillars of the same appearance and texture.

‘I have thus given you an imperfect sketch of the mechanical structure and appearance of the cave. It only remains to mention its productions.

‘The first in importance is sulphate of magnesia, or Epsom salts, which, as has been before remarked, abounds throughout this cave in almost its whole extent, and which, I believe, has no parallel in the history of that article. This neutral salt is found in a great variety of forms, and in many different stages of formation, sometimes in lumps, varying from one to ten pounds in weight. The earth exhibits a shining appearance, from the numerous particles interspersed through the huge piles of dirt collected in different parts of the cave. The foregoing remark applies with truth, not only to the surface, but to three feet below it. This is the greatest distance hitherto examined. The walls are covered in different places with the same article, and reproduction goes on rapidly. With a view to ascertain this fact, I removed from a particular place every vestige of the salt, and in four or five weeks the place was covered with small needle-shaped crystals, exhibiting the appearance of frost.

‘The quality of the salt in this cave is inferior to none, and, when it takes its proper stand in regular and domestic practice, must be of national utility. With respect to the resources of this cave, I will venture to say that every competent judge must pronounce them inexhaustible. The worst earth that has been tried will yield four pounds of salt to the bushel, and the best from twenty to twenty-five pounds.

‘The next production is the nitrate of lime, or saltpetre earth. There are vast quantities of this earth, and equal in strength to any that I have ever seen; and when potassium can be more conveniently obtained than at present, the manufacture of saltpetre must be a lucrative pursuit. There are also large quantities of the nitrate of allumina or nitrate of argyl, which will yield as much nitrate of potassium or saltpetre, in proportion to the quantities of earth, as the nitrate of lime.

‘The three articles above enumerated are first in quantity and importance; but there are several others, which deserve notice as subjects of philosophical curiosity. The sulphate of lime, or plaster of Paris, is to be seen variously formed; ponderous, crystallized, and impalpable, or soft, light, and rather spongy. Vestiges of the sulphate of iron, are also to be seen in one or two places. Small specimens of the carbonate, and also the nitrate of magnesia, have been found. The rocks in the cave principally consist of carbonate of lime, or common limestone.

‘I had almost forgotten to state, that near the forks of the cave are two specimens of painting, probably of Indian origin. The one appears to be a savage, with something like a bow in his hand, and furnishes the hint that it was done when that instrument of death was in use. The other is so much defaced, that it is impossible to say what it was intended to represent.’

Carver’s Cave.—‘About twelve miles below the new garrison at St. Peter’s,’ says Mr. Schoolcraft, ‘we stopped to examine a remarkable cavern, on the east banks of the Mississippi, called Wakon-teebe, by the Narcotah or Sioux Indians, but which, in compliment to the memory of its first European visitor, should be denominated Carver’s Cave. It is situated in a rock of the most beautiful white sand-stone, at the head of a small valley about four hundred yards from the banks of the river. Its mouth is about sixty or seventy feet wide and twenty in height, but the former soon decreases to about twenty feet, and the latter to seven. This width gradually lessens as you advance during the first hundred yards, but the height remains nearly the same, so that a man can walk without stooping. Then it tapers into a narrow passage, where it is necessary to creep, which suddenly opens into a spacious chamber. From this a narrow crevice continues as far as it has been explored. Some of our party pursued it four hundred yards by the light of wax candles. It is very damp and chilly. There is a handsome stream of pure water running from its mouth. The temperature of the air in the cave was fifty-four degrees, that of the water forty-seven. As it is situated in sand-stone rock, it affords no stalactites, or spars. Some parts of the rock at the mouth are colored green, probably by the carbonate of copper. The bed of the brook is composed of a crystalline sand of the most snowy whiteness, originating from the disintegration of the surrounding walls. Scattered over this are a number of small pebbles, of so intensely black a color, as to create a pleasing contrast, when viewed through the medium of a clear stream. These, on examination, proved to be masses of limestone, granite, and quartz, colored externally by a thin deposit of earthy matter, and I conclude the color to proceed from the gallic acid, with which the water, percolating into the cavern, through the beds of oak leaves of the superincumbent forest, may be partially saturated. This cave has been visited by most persons who have passed up the Mississippi, if we may judge from the number of names found upon the walls. Among them, we were informed, was that of Captain Carver, who visited it in 1768, but we did not observe it. His grant of land from the Indians is dated in this cave, but the cave itself appears to have undergone a considerable alteration since that period, for he says that “about twenty feet from the entrance begins a lake, the water of which is transparent, and extends to an unsearchable distance.” As the rock is of a very friable nature, and easily acted upon by running water, it is probable that the lake has been discharged, thus enlarging the boundaries of the cave. He also remarks, “at a little distance from this dreary cavern, is the burying-place of several bands of the Nawdowessie (Sioux) Indians. Though these people have no fixed residence, living in tents, and abiding but a few months in one spot, yet they always bring the bones of their dead to this place; which they take the opportunity of doing when the chiefs meet to hold their councils, and to settle the public affairs for the ensuing summer.” We noticed no bones or traces of interment about the cave, but perhaps a further examination of the adjacent region would have led to a discovery.’

In Kentucky and Tennessee, caves are numerous, which appear to have been used for burial-places. In the county of Ulster, in New York, is a cave three quarters of a mile in length, caused by a stream running under ground. The rock which constitutes the roof and sides of the cave is a dark colored limestone, containing impressions of shells, calcareous spar, and beautiful white and yellow stalactites. At one end is a fall of water, the depth of which has not been fathomed. At Rhinebeck, near the Hudson, is a cave in which a narrow entrance leads to several spacious rooms, abounding with columns of stalactites. At Chester, in Warren county, there is a stream which passes under a natural bridge, and among many deep caverns; the waters enter in two streams, unite in the subterranean passage, and issue in a single current under a precipice sixty feet in height.

In the Laurel Mountain, in Pennsylvania, is a cavern with a very narrow entrance, and various winding passages, which has been traversed two miles. It is formed of a soft sandstone, and its roof is covered with millions of bats. At Durham in Bucks county, on the Delaware, is a cave in the limestone rock, abounding with pools and rivulets of water. At Carlisle is another somewhat similar, in which human bones have been discovered.

GENERAL REMARKS ON CAVES.

Caves or grottoes are natural fissures in the solid crust of the earth, with walls and a natural roof. They are sometimes of immense extent and depth, and frequently the first excavation is only the vestibule to another much larger and deeper. Eldon Hole, in Derbyshire, has been sounded with a line of more than nine thousand six hundred feet, but without reaching its bottom. A cavern near Frederickshall, Norway, has been estimated at eleven thousand feet in depth. Many caverns are remarkable for various natural curiosities. The most interesting are those in which the dropping of water has caused the formation of stalactites, either suspended from the vaults of the caverns in the shape of long crystals, or assuming fantastic forms on the floor and along the wall. Antiparos and Peak caves in Derbyshire, England, owe their celebrity to those formations. Other caves are strewed with petrified bones, and have evidently been the burial-places of generations of human beings.

There are caverns which contain deep pits of water, or wells, of such an extent as to acquire the name of subterranean lakes. In some are the sources, and in others the receptacles, of large streams. In Norway you may sometimes walk upon an arched calcareous floor, and hear the roar of torrents under your feet. In Russia, many caverns have been evidently formed by means of water, and even masses of ice.

Fingal’s Cave in the Isle of Staffa, on the western coast of Scotland, is the grandest in the known world. Its sides are formed of majestic columns of basalt, which are almost as regular as if they had been formed by art. These columns support a lofty roof, under which the sea rolls its waves, while the vastness of the entrance admits the light of day to the recesses of the cave. The origin of these basaltic formations is uncertain.

The caves of Kirkdale, in England, and Gailenreuth, in Germany, are remarkable for the quantities of bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, and hyena found in them. The mine of fluor spar, in Castleton, Derbyshire, passes through several stalactic caverns. Other caverns in England contain subterraneous cascades. In the Rock of Gibraltar there are a number of stalactic caverns, of which the principal is called St. Michael’s, and is one thousand feet above the sea. The most famous caves of Germany are those of Bauman and Bielstein, in the Hartz.

Caves sometimes exhale poisonous vapors. Of these, the most remarkable is near Naples, named the Grotto del Cane. In Iceland, there are many formed by the lava from its volcanoes. In the volcanic country near Rome, are many natural cavities of great extent and coolness, which form pleasant places of resort in the hot weather. The grottoes in the Cevennes Mountains, in France, are both numerous and extensive, and abound in objects of curiosity. In South America is the cavern of Guacharo, which is said to extend for leagues.