438 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I7Q4. 



small villages, insignificant in themselves, but become famous for the discoveries 

 made in their neighbourhood. 



The tract of hills is there broken off by many small and narrovv^ valleys, con- 

 fined mostly by steep and high rocks, here and there overhanging, and threaten- 

 ing as it were to fall and crush all beneath ; and every where thereabouts are to 

 be met with, objects which suggest the idea of their being evident vestiges of 

 some general and mighty catastrophe, which happened in the primeval times of 

 the globe. The strata of these hills consist chiefly of limestone of various co- 

 lour and texture, or of marl and sandstones. The tract of limestone hills abounds 

 with petriAictions of various kinds. 



The main entrance to the caves at Gailenreuth opens near the summit of a 

 limestone hill towards the east. An arch, near 7 feet high, leads into a kind of 

 anti-chamber, 80 feet in length, and 300 feet in circumference, which constitutes 

 the vestibule of 4 other caves. This anti-chamber is lofty and airy, but has no 

 light except what enters by its open arch ; its bottom is level, and covered with 

 black mould ; though the common soil of the environs is loam and marl. By 

 several circumstances it appears, that it has been used in turbulent times as a 

 place of refuge. From this vestibule, or first cave, a dark and narrow alley opens 

 in the corner at the south end, and leads into the 2d cave, which is about 6o feet 

 long, 18 high, and 40 broad. Its sides and roof are covered, in a wild and rough 

 manner, with stalactites, columns of which are hanging from the roof, others 

 rising from the bottom, meeting the first in many whimsical shapes. 



The air of this cave, as well as of all the rest, is always cool, and has, even 

 in the height of summer, been found below temperate. Caution is therefore 

 necessary to its visitors; for it is remarkable, that people having spent any time 

 in this or the other caverns, always on their coming out again appear pale, which 

 in part may be owing to the coolness of the air, and in part also to the particular 

 exhalations within the caves. A very narrow, winding, and troublesome passage 

 opens farther into a 3d cave, or chamber of a roundish form, and about 30 feet 

 diameter, covered all over with stalactites. Very near its entrance there is a 

 perpendicular descent of about 20 feet, into a dark and frightful abyss; a ladder 

 must be brought to descend into it, and caution is necessary in using it, on ac- 

 count of the rough and slippery stalactites. When down, you enter into a gloomy 

 cave of about 13 feet diameter, and 30 feet high, making properly but a seg- 

 ment of the 3d cave. In the passage to this 3d cave, some teeth and fragments 

 of bones are found; but coming down to the pit of the cave, you are every way 

 surrounded by a vast heap of animal remains. The bottom of this cave is paved 

 with a stalactical crust of near a foot in thickness; large and small fragments of 

 all sorts of bones are scattered every where on the surface of the ground, or are 

 easily drawn out of the mouldering rubbish. The very walls seem filled with 



