TEN INDIANA CAVES. 105 



in a perpendicular water-fall. The mouth of the cave 

 is fifty feet wide and 14 J feet high, the roof extending 

 out in a broadly arched front several feet beyond the 

 the face of the water-fall below. The rock down which 

 the water flows is covered with moss, arid in the early 

 morn, when the sunbeams light up the interior of the 

 cave for a distance of 75 or more feet, and glisten and 

 sparkle from the mossy background of the falling 

 water, the scene is a most entrancing one. 



The cave can be entered only by a narrow footpath 

 On the northern side of the mouth. Twenty feet back 

 from the entrance the roof becomes flat, and for almost 

 100 feet is comparatively smooth, being composed, 

 apparently of one immense slab of limestone. In this 

 distance the width gradually narrows to 30 feet. The 

 floor is wholly of rock, in some places covered to a 

 depth of several inches with sediment and loose stones 

 brought down by the running stream. The latter, 

 for the first 270 feet, is from four to eight feet wide 

 and two to five inches deep. It meanders from side 

 to side of the floor, making the frequent crossing of it 

 a necessity. Beyond 270 feet it covers the entire 

 floor to a depth of from six to twenty inches, and far- 

 ther exploration must be made while wading. 



The cave salamander, Spelerpes maculicaudus 

 (Cope), inhabits this cave, several specimens being 

 found within 200 feet of the entrance. They were 

 clinging to the damp walls and showed little fear 

 when approached. The raccoon, Procyon lotor (L.), 

 visits the cave in numbers and evidently passes en- 

 tirely through it, as was evinced by the tracks, 

 which were very plentiful along the margins of the 



