106 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



stream. To their visitation is probably due the ab- 

 sence of crayfish and other crustaceans, no specimens 

 of which were noted. Four kinds of cave flies were 

 found on the walls from seventy-five feet on back as 

 far as exploration was made. A few cave myriapods 

 dwelt beneath stones within 150 feet of the entrance, 

 and three kinds of spiders were taken from the floor 

 or ceiling. One of these, Theridium porteri Banks, 

 had not before been described. It was found on the 

 walls or roof of the room at the source of the cave, 

 and near each specimen was often two and always one 

 small globular cocoon, suspended by a single thread 

 from the roof or a projection of the wall. Scattered 

 threads of webs were also noted, but ran in no definite 

 direction. 



But few stalactites occur in Porter's Cave and they 

 are dirty brown in color. At a point 250 feet from 

 the entrance a very large one partially shuts off the 

 passage-way ; and 645 feet in, a similar one which has 

 had its lower portion broken off, is found. At 750 

 feet the roof becomes so low that one has to stoop, 

 and the width is reduced to 18 feet. From this point 

 onward both height and width gradually diminish 

 until at 852 feet it became necessary to crawl through 

 water, and further exploration was abandoned. It is 

 claimed that in a dry season persons have passed en- 

 tirely through the passage, crawling for several hun- 

 dred feet and then emerging into a low room near the 

 source. A visit to the latter showed that it was not 

 a true sink-hole, but a passage-way worn through the 

 rocks in the side of a low hill. The opening was ten 

 feet wide and about four feet high and a short distance 



