193 



limestone, the dripping waters have formed the beautiful 

 stalactites by the deposit of the carbonate of lime as each 

 drop of water was freed from its carbonic acid. In such 

 places one beholds the beauties of the formations within 

 the cave, and there are to be seen the innumerable shapes 

 of stalactites, from small tubes to massive pointed forms, 

 and from delicate translucent curtains to immense tinted 

 pendants, while from the water that drops to the floor 

 below arise little hills of pure lime, or the immense pedes- 

 tals which, in some cases, uniting with the stalactites 

 above, form continuous columns, often fluted and corniced 

 like the most elaborately carved pillars. The upper and 

 dry chambers are left to stand until they shall be worn 

 away by gradual erosion or be destroyed by some great 

 convulsion of nature. The water action that is slowly 

 depositing the lime anew in the form of stalactites and 

 stalagmites is gradually closing the chambers that had 

 previously been formed by its more active operations 

 which are still going on in the passages below. Here the 

 river action is to be seen, and one soon understands the 

 formation of the beds of sand, the pits and the potholes 

 seen in many parts of the caverns. 



The present caves are thus unquestionably traced to 

 the action of running water and the chemical action of 

 the carbonic acid which have been going on for thousands 

 and thousands of years. The denudation of the surface 

 of the rock by the same and other causes must not be 

 forgotten, and there is every reason to believe that this 

 denudation, or gradual wearing away of the surface of the 

 limestone, must have been immense. With this consider- 

 ation before us the suggestion that caverns may once have 

 existed in the upper part of this limestone, made when 

 the rock was in connection with the salt water which for- 

 merly extended over this area, may not be considered too 



