CAVE AT KIRKDALE. II 



Farther in, the appearance is different, the roof 

 and sides become irregularly arched, presenting a 

 wild appearance. Hereyou perceive hanging from 

 the roof, masses of chert and stalactite. On the 

 bottom of the cave, before it was cleaned out, was? 

 a sediment of mud or loam, of different thicknesses 

 according to the elevation or depression of the floor : 

 in some places the protuberances of the floor came 

 nearly to the surface, in others they quite made 

 their appearance, in others the mud was from 6 to, 

 8 inches thick. Stalagmite adhered to the sides of 

 the Cave, some of it continued to the floor, and then 

 turned off at right angles above the mud. 



Some distance in the cavern, the stalagmite a- 

 bounded more than at the entrance ; comparatively 

 little of it was seen where the rock was compact 

 and void of fissures ; in some parts there was none, 

 in some places it ran from one side to the other, 



which interrupted the junction of the beds ; as lime in so- 

 lution may be pouied intaa mould r and when it is con- 

 solidated place a ridge of sand on the top of it; pour 

 more lime in the same state, and when that is hardened, 

 remove it from the mould, take away the sand, and the 

 result will be a cavern, the space being left which the 

 sand occupied. This conjecture was suggested to me, by 

 observing that between all the beds of limestone is some of 

 this inarly clay, as if placed there for the purpose of pack- 

 ing them ; itis so on cither side of the cave, going horizon- 

 tally from the floor of it to the face of the quarry, 

 corresponding nearly in thickness with that which 

 was on the floor of the cave when it was first discovered ; 

 and it is probable, that when the water subsided from, 

 the land at the close of the catastrophe, it carried away 

 the greater part of the loam, and produced the cavern, 

 and a part at least of that in which the bones werq 

 afterwards imbedded, might have remained en the floor*. 



