THE MUSEUM 



A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Research in Natural Science. 



Vol. IV 



ALBION, N. Y., JANUARY 15, 189S. 



Nc. 



Mitchell's Cave. 



1'. M. VAN EPrS. 



Mitchells Cave is in the heart of 

 the elevation known as the Little or 

 South Nose, or as it is locally called 

 "Nose Hill, " a very prominent feature 

 in the landscape of the Mohawk Valley 

 near Sprakers, Montgomery Co., N. 

 Y. The Little Nose is an elevation 

 of 740 feet above mean sea level. 

 The entrance of the cavern is on the 

 680 foot level and is nearly or quite 

 one half mile south from the river. 



Mitchell's is an anomaly among 

 caves! Having peril enough in its des- 

 cent to satisfy the most fastidious 

 cave-hunter — having its underworld of 

 stalactite drapery — in its lower cor- 

 riders springs and pools of water 

 pools of water held in check by mimic 

 dams of tufa — with chambers whose 

 ceilings are hung at such di/2y heights 

 that no light has yet disclosed them, 

 yet this fascinating revelation for the 

 scientist is not a cave in the true sense 

 of the word as- we ordinarily under- 

 stand it. 



Not only does Mitchell's Cave differ 

 from the ordinary cavern in the mode 

 of its origin but also in that it is found 

 to be situated entirely in the Calcifer- 

 ous sandstone, a rock formation that 

 seldom contains caverns of any great 

 size or extent. The Calciferous sand- 

 stone strata of eastern New York pre- 

 sent areas which are found to plenti- 

 fully abound in seams and joints. 

 Many of these crevices form the 

 courses for small subterranean streams 

 but these streams seldom enlarge their 

 conduits to any great extent owing, in 

 part, to the extreme hardness and 

 tough flinty character of the layers, 

 but more, to the barrenness of lime in 

 the Calciferous strata. 



Partly to erosion and partly to 

 chemical decomposition of rock mass- 

 es by acidulated water are we indebt- 

 ed for the noted caverns of the world. 

 These are found invariably to be in 

 rock strata far richer in lime than is 

 our Calciferous sandstone, despite its 

 limy name. The Trenton and Hel- 

 derberg limestones and still later cal- 

 careous rocks of Devonian age contain 

 our greatest caves. 



So we find the true cave to be a 

 series of chambers and corriders — of 

 passages great and small, torturous 

 and intricate often; all carved and 

 worked out by the mechanical and 

 chemical action of subterranean wa- 

 ters following the natural seams and 

 joints of the rock. Here slowly tear- 

 ing down the solid fabric of the globe: 

 there more slowly rebuilding in some 

 fantastic form of pendent alabaster or 

 stalagmitic growth, 



Mitchell's on the contrary, is an 

 enoimous vertical cleft or rift in the 

 Calciferous sandstone dividing the sub- 

 stance of the mountain as though it 

 had been cheese stricken through with 

 some enormous cleaver. The portion 

 of this ancient rent not filled with 

 glacial detritus and rubbish constitute 

 the present cave. 



The primal caves of this great cleft 

 we will not here discuss further than 

 to suggest that it was doubtless pro- 

 duced by some orogenic movement 

 widening a pre-existing seam at a time 

 coincident with the faulting of the en- 

 tire Mohawk region. Its line of di- 

 rection is parallel with the faults 

 crossing the Mohawk country as map- 

 ped and described in the recent re- 

 ports of the State Geologist. In fact, 

 one of the fault lines mapped by Dar- 

 ton crosses the river but a short dis- 

 tance to the east; less than a mile. 

 Could the cleft of Mitchell's Cave be 



