.1 cAi'i:n.\ L\ Till': corri:n (^ri:i:x mim: mo; 



This stala,i:iiiit(^ was noteworthy on accoiiiit of the racMatiii}^ chistcrs of 

 pointtMl calcitr thickly set all owr it hut diminishing^ in size from tlio hot- 

 toin of th(> colnnm ni)\\ar(l. It has been conunonly held that such crystals 

 could he formed only niidcr water, l)nt conditions here indicate that there 

 has been no suhmcri;'cncc or lilliiii;- of the cax'e since it was formed and 

 we must conclude that in a rci;ion of c\trcincl\ rapid evaporation crystals 

 will grow from a solution fiowiiii,^ o\-er a surface. 



The upper wall of this room was formetl by a great block of fallen rock 

 which has received the drip{)ings of a lime-bearing watercourse. Stalag- 

 mite was formed on its top, while ribs of calcite, some of which were complete 

 lines of crystal tufts, projected close together from its sides. Narrow, drip- 

 stone-lined passages on either side of this block led to a series of three 

 small rooms one abo\e another, the last of which was so low that an adult 

 could hardly squeeze his way into it. These upper rooms were character- 

 ized by abundant stalactites and practically no stalagmites, contrasting 

 with the conditions in the lower rooms where the stalagmites predominate 

 at the expense of the stalactites. One of the most beautiful small features 

 of the cave was the occurrence on the walls of one of the upper rooms of 

 long acicular crystals of delicate green calcite grouped paintbrush fashion 

 on small botryoidal masses of the same material. The cave extended up 

 slopes averaging thirty degrees, through a vertical distance of about eighty 

 feet and nowhere exceeded forty feet in width and thirty feet in height. 



Inasmuch as the cave was doomed to ruin through mining, the company 

 generously furnished the men and the means for removing at infinite pains 

 the grotto and such other formations as w^e desired, and for transporting 

 them to New York. This material is now at the Museum and there will 

 soon be in place and on exhibition a reproduction of this most beautiful 

 underground chamber. 



MUSEUM NEWS NOTES 



The followifig have been elected recently to membership in the Museum: 



Felloic, ^Mr. Johx A. Grossbeck; 



Life Mniiherfi, Dr. Arnold Kxapp, Messrs. Anthony N. Brady, 

 Frederick F. Brewster, Harold J. Cook, Francis R. Hitchcock, 

 Henry Lang, Joseph J. Nunan, John J. Pierrepont, Charles de Rham, 

 Edward W. Sheldon, Henry Atterbury Smith, Mmes. George C. 

 Clausen, Charles W. Harkness, James J. Higginson, Daniel S. 

 Lamont, James Roosevelt, Jacob H. Schiff, Charles Stewart Smith, 

 H. P. Whitney, Mlsses Helen Hurd, Rosamond Pinchot, and Masters 

 Varick P'rissell and Gikford Pinchot, 2d; 



