178 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



cascade in mid-air transmuted into stone, and there a 

 sculptured cell amid clustered columns." The cave 

 finally ends in " Peri's Prison," where a narrow side 

 gallery is separated from the main passage by a row 

 of slender pillars, each but a few inches from its 

 neighbor. All in all, Little Wyandotte is well worthy 

 of visitation, and he who wishes to see the beautiful 

 and at the same time experience a sense of the perils 

 attending cave exploration, should enter its bounds, 

 cross the narrow bridge between the yawning chasms, 

 and climb the slippery hill to the lovely gallery be- 

 yond. 



*** 



. Other caves there are in southern Indiana which we 

 would gladly have explored and described had our 

 time permitted. No two in the State are alike. Each 

 is noted for some peculiar formation, room or passage 

 which it possesses. In each and all can one see the 

 results of the action of water that greatest of nature's 

 solvents and abraders, soft to the touch, gentle to look 

 upon, its work of a day, a year, a century upon the 

 solid limestone not appreciable to the eye yet by 

 slow, unceasing action through the eons which have 

 elapsed since that work began, it has carved every 

 room and passage, constructed every pillar and sta- 

 lagmite existing beneath the surface of southern 

 Indiana. 



