Dr Davy's Account of Cole's Cave, Barbadoes. 357 



cricket kind on the walls, and numerous bats, which make its 

 drier parts their roosting-places. I have not been able to 

 learn that any lizard, analogous to the Proteus, has been 

 found in its pools. 



Where water is always flowing, and commonly dropping, 

 it is not surprising, especially considering the nature of the 

 rock- formation, that deposited carbonate of lime should 

 abound. Its character seems to me the most interesting cir- 

 cumstance connected with this cave. I have specimens now 

 before me, which I broke off myself, evidently formed from 

 deposition in water, exhibiting a very remarkable variety, 

 not only as regards forms, but also structure ; in brief, there 

 is a tolerably complete series, from a kind resembling moun- 

 tain limestone, to another very little different in appearance 

 from Parian marble. Even in the strata of the smaller sta- 

 lactites and stalagmites, such and other differences are ob- 

 servable ; thus, one part may be very fine-grained in thin con- 

 centric layers, another confusedly crystalline, and a third 

 more regularly so. In one specimen, and that a stalactite, 

 the general structure is radiated, shewing a tendency to the 

 prismatic form of crystallization, accompanied by transversei 

 lines, as it were, of cleavage, denoting the rhomboidal form ; 

 the one approximating to arragonite, the other to calc-spar. 

 Moreover, there are, in particular situations, strata formed 

 on the bank of the rivulet very like tufa, or a porous freestone, 

 and somewhat similarly constituted, being formed of carbo^ 

 nate of lime in crystalline grains, acting the part of a cement, 

 and of a portion of sand or a little clay. 



I have thought it worth while to examine chemically some 

 of these specimens exhibiting the greatest variety of charac- 

 ter ; and I shall briefly notice the results of the trials. 



The pure white crystalline specimen resembling Parian 

 marble appeared to consist of carbonate of lime alone ; no- 

 thing else could be detected in it. 



That resembling mountain limestone, of a fawn colour, 

 finely granular, and in part minutely crystalline, besides car- 

 bonate of lime, contained a minute quantity of alumine, with 

 a trace of peroxide of iron, and a small quantity of matter in 

 a finely divided state, not soluble in an acid, which, under the 



VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXII. — OCTOBER 1846. 2 A 



