518 ON CAVES CONTAINING BONES 



another narrow passage, at first by creeping, and after- 

 wards by a ladder. The difference of level is 30 feet. 

 The second cave is the richest in stalactite of ' all forms. 

 The passage to the third cave is at first the most difficult 

 of all, and we have to climb with hands and feet ; but it 

 afterwards enlarges, and the stalactites of its walls are 

 those in which the imagination of the curious has pre- 

 tended to see the best characterized figures. It has two 

 lateral dilatations, of which the map of the Ada Erudi- 

 torutn makes the third and fourth caves. At its extre- 

 mity, we have still to ascend, in order to arrive at the real 

 third cave, which forms a sort of portal. Behrens says, 

 in his Hercynia curivsa, that it cannot be reached, be- 

 cause it would be necessary to descend more than 60 feet ; 

 but the above mentioned map, and the description of Von 

 der Hardty which accompanies it, describe this third cave 

 under the name of the Fifth, and place beyond it a 

 narrow passage, terminated by two small grottoes. Last- 

 ly, Silberschlag, in his Geogony, adds, that one of these 

 grottoes leads to a narrow passage, which, descend- 

 ing much, leads under the other caves, and terminates in 

 a place filled with water. There are still many bones in 

 these remote and little frequented parts. Most of those 

 bones which are in collections from this cave, or which 

 have been described, are of the bear genus. 



A second cave, nearly as celebrated as the former, and 

 very near, is that which is named, after the unicorn, 

 Enihornshcele, at the foot of the chateau of Scharzfels, 

 in a part of the Electorate of Hanover which is named 

 the Dutchy of Grubenhagen, and nearly upon the last 

 southern declivity of the Hartz. It has also been de- 

 scribed by Leibnitz, as well as by M. Deluc, in his Letters 



