417 



floor is also covered with a wet and slippery glazing, in which several 

 teeth and jaws appear to have been fixed. 



From this grotto commences the descent to the inferior caverns. 

 Within only about five or six feet an opening in the floor is seen, which is 

 partly vaulted over by a projecting piece of rock. The descent is about 

 twenty feet; and occasioned to M. Esper and his companions some little 

 fear lest they should never return, but remain to augment the zoolithes 

 contained in these terrific mansions. This cavern was found to be about 

 thirty feet in height, about fifteen feet in width, and nearly circular: 

 the sides, roof, and floor, displaying the remains of animals. The rock it- 

 self is thickly beset with teeth and bones, and the floor is covered with 

 a loose earth, the evident result of animal decomposition, and in which 

 numerous bones are imbedded. 



A gradual descent leads to another grotto, which, with its passage, is 

 forty feet in length, and twenty feet in height. Its sides and top are beau- 

 tifully adorned with stalactites. Nearly twenty feet further is a frightful 

 gulf, the opening of which is about fifteen feet in diameter ; and upon 

 descending about twent}^ feet, another grotto, about the same diameter 

 with the former, but forty feet in height, is seen. Here the bones 

 are dispersed about ; and the floor, which is formed of animal earth, 

 has great numbers of them imbedded in it. The bones which are here 

 found seem to be of different animals; but in this, as well as in the for- 

 mer caverns, perfect and unbroken bones are very seldom found. Some- 

 times a tooth is seen projecting from the solid rock, through the stalac- 

 titic covering, showing that many of these wonderful remains may here 

 be concealed. A specimen of this kind, which I possess, from Gaylen- 

 reuth, is rendered particularly interesting, by the first molar tooth of the 

 lower jaw, with its enamel quite perfect, rising through the stalactitic 

 mass which invests the bone. In this cavern the stalactites begin to be 

 of a larger size, and of a more columnar form. 



Passing on, through a small opening in the rock, a small cave, seven 

 feet long and five feet high, is discovered : another small opening out of 



VOL. in. 3 H 



