154 Flint and Chert Implements (April, 
the preceding term of the series—points to the conclusion 
that it was formed slowly. That the main lines of 
drainage through the roof have remained unaltered is seen 
in the facts. that those parts of the cavern which have an 
unusually thick floor of stalagmite have also, at present, 
more than an ordinarily copious drip; where the floor is but 
thin the drip is never of great amount; and where there is 
no floor—for a few such places occur—the cavern is quite dry 
at allseasons; and further, wherever a conspicuous stalactite 
depended from the roof, there was found, vertically below, 
rising from the Granular Stalagmitic floor a considerable boss 
of the same material to meet it ; and whenever the lower or 
Crystalline Stalagmitic floor was found in such a se¢tion, a 
similar but larger boss existed on it also. In_ several 
parts of the Cavern there are names, initials, and dates 
inscribed on the Granular Stalagmite, where it is certainly of 
great thickness, and where additions are still being made to 
it. There is satisfactory evidence of their genuineness; and, 
though some of them are upwards of two hundred and fifty 
years old, and are slightly glazed over, they are perfectly 
legible, and the film accreted on them cannot be more than 
the twentieth of an inch in thickness. It is not pretended, 
of course, that this rate must be taken as a trustworthy 
chronometer for the entire thickness, but those who object 
to it must expect to be called on to state why they do so; 
and even if the objection should be sustained, it will be 
seen that, when a thickness of five feet presents itself for 
measurement—a rate even ten times as great as that which 
has certainly obtained for more than two and a half 
centuries—betokens a great antiquity. 
That the Cave-earth, every portion of which is necessarily 
older than the most ancient part of the stalagmite covering 
it, was accumulated very slowly is seen in the great number 
of small angular fragments with which the walls of the 
cavern have crowded it, and in the films of stalagmite 
which, as already stated, invest the bones and stones every- 
where throughout the total depth of the mass, since each 
such film indicates that the spot the invested objet occupies 
was a portion of the floor of the Cavern during a time sufficient 
for its accretion, and that it was only prevented from growing 
into a thick wide-spread sheet by the introduction and lodge- 
ment on it of a small instalment of Cave-earth. 
Whatever be the aggregate amount of time represented by 
the less ancient deposits just spoken of, there can be little 
doubt that at least fully as much is absorbed by the more 
ancient cavern history, of which the formation of the 
Breccia and Crystalline Stalagmite, as well as the subsequent 
