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Yorkshire, to wlxich this bore a striking resemblance, minus the 

 water ■which pours into the latter. Before he was hauled back 

 again Mr. NichoUs ht up the cavern Tvith a Bengal light, which 

 brought out its roughly circular form plainly, and its more or less 

 dome-shaped character. Various side drifts were seen leading 

 away in different directions to other caverns, and the whole top 

 and sides coated with a sheet of stalactite, looking very beautiful 

 in the play of light ; the floor was a mass of tumbled blocks — 

 probably the result of falls from the roof or brought down the 

 side passages by water. The party haA'ing come above ground 

 again safely after a highly interesting and instructive scramble, it 

 now remains but to make a few remarks as to these caverns which 

 have been re-discovered after the lapse of probably more than a 

 hundred years. In the first place, some idea of the rate of 

 progress of the formation of stalactite may be arrived at, by the 

 very slight film merely which has been formed over the broken 

 ends since they were fractured by the former explorers. Then 

 these caverns give one a good idea of the wearing-away power of 

 water chemically or mechanically, for their history seems to be 

 this ; water once finding its way from the surface down the 

 swallet holes which abound in Mountain Limestone districts, 

 gradually eating out and enlarging the joints and fissures down 

 which it percolates until it finally disappears into some cavern or 

 hollow which it continues to wear away and enlarge, until at 

 some future time the drainage of the district changing and the 

 water finding another means of exit, the passages and chambers 

 are left dry. The gradual percolation of water, charged with 

 carbonate of lime, lines the roof with stalactites and the floor 

 with stalagmites, and man and beast at length find their way in, 

 the latter in the form of teeth and bones, the former in the 

 persons of miners and other curious folk. As regards the 

 remains of the latter nothing has been at present found, though 

 the stalagmitic floor has been broken up in several places ; neither 

 does it seem likely that any wiU be found owing to the steep 



