72 DEEPDALE CAVE. 



The subsequent history can be traced with much greater cer- 

 tainty. It was mentioned above that in the second chamber 

 there was the edge of an old sheet of stalagmite, and that in the 

 debris below the present floor Mr. Millett observed many broken 

 pieces of it. I have indicated the position of this old sheet by 

 two dotted lines in the transverse section. It need hardly be said 

 that stalagmite must be deposited upon soviething, and that this 

 something in the present case was an ancient floor. Mr. Millett 

 has satisfactory proofs that this floor consisted of cave earth, with 

 fragments of limestone, exactly corresponding with that of the 

 first chamber. This is interesting, for it tends to show that the 

 thick sheet of stalagmite in that chamber is a continuation of the 

 same sheet ; in other words, that the whole cave had a tolerably 

 level floor of cave-earth, covered with a continuous and thick 

 layer of stalagmite. I cannot think that this cave earth was 

 washed in at the time the valley bottom was level with it. If 

 so, a time would come when the valley was so deep as to leave 

 the cave out of reach of flood water, when of course that deposit 

 would cease. The stalagmite shows that the cave was closed 

 against the ready access of animals and vegetable matters, as fallen 

 leaves. Under such conditions a solid sheet of stalagmite could 

 be deposited. 



The next great event was the removal of cave-earlh from the 

 second chamber. This is not strange when it is considered that 

 this chamber originated in a mineral vein. We see the cause 

 in operation to-day : — the stream of water which Mr. Millett saw, 

 and which issues into the valley hard by — this, by dissolving 

 away the mineral filling and limestone, would inevitably under- 

 mine the cave- earth above and wash it away, until the sheet 

 of stalagmite would be left hanging like a floor in mid-air, if it 

 had not already been smashed up by falls of rock from the roof. 

 In this case, of course, it would sink with the cave earth; if 

 otherwise, sooner or later a fall of rock would bring about its 

 destruction. Under any circumstances, after the finer materials 

 were removed, the larger masses of rock and stalagmite would 

 settle down, and thus allow of new deposits being formed upon 



