156 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



November, 1896, numerous pieces of bunch grass, the 

 inside bark of lin and poplar trees and short stems of 

 weeds were found. These were, probably, remnants 

 of a store of fuel resorted to when the torches waned 

 or a relight was needed. 



Bat's Lodge is a IOAV room 70 feet long, 21 feet wide 

 and five to six feet high, the walls and roof begrimed 

 with the smoke of ancient fires, and the floor a mix- 

 ture of dry, dusty earth, with here and there a piece 

 of fallen limestone. From the mouth of the cave to 

 this point is a gradual descension, and barometer 

 measurements showed the floor to be 150 feet lower 

 than the Cave Hotel. Beyond this room the roof so 

 closely approaches the floor that, in 1856, " Counter- 

 feiter's Trench" was dug through the earthy deposit 

 which had silted up the way. Through this trench 

 we easily passed and found ourselves at the foot of 

 "Rugged Mountain," a mass of broken pieces of lime- 

 stone, thirty feet or more in height, which fills the 

 greater part of a large room. Climbing this moun- 

 tain we reached the "Rotunda" or upper portion of 

 the room, 52 feet one way by 90 feet the other, with* 

 the roof 16 feet above the top of the mass of rock. 

 Around the edges of 'the room are numerous deposits 

 of fine, white, needle-shaped crystals of epsom salts 

 (magnesium sulphate) encrusting the rocks and spar- 

 kling like frostwork in the light of our candles. They 

 seem to exude from a porous matrix of magnesian 

 limestone, and if not disturbed often attain a length 

 of three to five inches. Passing down Rugged Moun- 

 tain on the farther side we entered " Hanover Chapel," 

 where numerous artificial piles of heavy stonesr, dedi- 



