114 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



Returning to the vestibule we climbed to the en- 

 trance of the upper floor, and, passing a short distance 

 within it, found two passages diverging. One to the 

 left, but forty feet in length, ends blindly against a 

 bank of hard clay. Here had been, in days of yore, 

 a bear-wallow and the marks of bruin's claws were 

 numerous and plainly visible in the clayey walls. The 

 right hand passage proved a long and tortuous one 

 and had a number of short branches leading from it, 

 one of which show r ed plainly the evidence of former 

 inhabitancy by bears. This main upper passage is in 

 most places seven to ten feet high, with a width of 

 five to seven feet. Two hundred feet from the vesti- 

 bule it became necessary to crawl for about thirty 

 feet through a space one foot high by two feet wide, 

 when we emerged into a circular room thirty feet in 

 diameter by three and a half high, the floor of which 

 contains a vast amount of bat guano. Beyond this 

 the passage forks into three branches, each of which 

 was explored as far as possible, the longer one reach- 

 ing 400 feet from the vestibule before its small size 

 barred further progress. The floor of this upper cave 

 was covered in many places with a yellow ochery 

 clay. In this, in several places, were found some 

 handsome acicular crystals of selenite. No water 

 was found on the upper floor, except at the farther 

 end of the galleries, where it stood in shallow pools. 

 These were evidently quite near the outer surface, as 

 the shells of several land snails were found near by 

 the water. 



