LIMESTONE CAVERNS. 61 



In Styria there is a wild desolate region, where the rocks 

 are so porous that every drop of rain at once passes through 

 them, and the surface is so dry that hardly any green thing 

 will grow. Down below, however, the scene is one of great 

 beauty, for here are the famous Adelsberg caverns, halls 

 excavated in the limestone, some of which are more than 

 250 feet long, and lofty in proportion, their richly-sculptured 

 roofs being supported by elaborately carved pillars, while 

 many are adorned with statues, obelisks, clustered columns, 

 birds, beasts, trees, plants, &c., all apparently chiselled out 

 of pure white marble, though the only tools used have been 

 water and carbonic acid. 



These two have dissolved the rock as they passed through 

 it, and then evaporating, have deposited the carbonate 01 

 lime again in these various forms, sometimes as stalactites 

 of every size and shape, which hang from the roof like 

 icicles, sometimes as cement, joining together broken frag- 

 ments of rock ; sometimes, falling to the ground, they have 

 built up wonderful stalagmitic columns, which vary from a 

 few inches to several feet in diameter, and at others they 

 have covered the walls with what look like festoons of 

 drapery, while in one place they have woven a curtain about 

 ten feet long and only an inch thick, which hangs in the 

 most graceful folds and seems to wave gently to and fro, as 

 the light from the guide's lamp falls on it from above. 



All these various forms of ornament are due to the 

 chemical action of water charged with carbonic acid, by 

 means of which some of the carbonate of lime removed 

 from above has here been re-deposited ; but the long, lofty 

 caverns, which extend for miles, have no doubt been 



