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reuth, on the confines of Bayreuth. The opening to these, which is 

 about seven feet and a half high, is at the foot of a rock of limestone of 

 considerable magnitude, and in its eastern side. Immediately beyond 

 the opening is a magnificent grotto, of about three hundred feet in cir- 

 cumference, which has been naturally divided by the form of the roof 

 into four caves. The first is about twenty-five feet long and wide, and 

 varies in height from nine to eighteen feet, the roof being formed into 

 irregular arches. Beyond this is the second cave, about twenty-eight 

 feet long, and of nearly the same width and height with the former. 

 In this cave the stalactitic crust begins to appear, and in considerable 

 quantity; but not in such quantity as in the third cave, which is beau- 

 tifully hung, as it were, with this sparry tapestry. The roof now begins 

 to slope downwards ; so that in the next, the last, of these caves, it is 

 not above four or five feet in height. In the caves forming this first 

 grotto, fragments of bones are found ; and it is said that they were as 

 plentiful here as they now are in the interior grottoes. 



The passage into the second grotto is about six feet high and fourteen 

 feet wide. This grotto, which extends straight forwards sixty feet from 

 the opening, and is about forty feet wide, and at its commencement 

 about eighteen feet high, would commodiously hold two hundred men. 

 Its appearance is rendered remarkably interesting from the darkness of 

 its recesses, and from the various brilliant reflexions of the light from the 

 stalactites with which its roofs and sides are covered. The constant drip 

 of water from the root and the stalagmatic pillars on the floor, assist in 

 perfecting the wonders of the scene. In this grotto no search was made 

 for bones, on account of the thickness of the sparry crust. 



A low and very rugged passage, the roof of which is formed of pro- 

 jecting pieces of rock, leads to the third grotto ; the opening into which 

 is a hole three feet high and four feet wide. This grotto is more regular 

 in its form, and is about thirty feet in diameter, and nearly round : its 

 height is from five to six feet. This grotto is very richly and fantas- 

 tically adorned by the varying forms of its stalactitic hangings. The 



