lix. 



SECOND SUiMIMER MEETING. 



CHEDDAE, WELLS, AND GLASTONBURY. 



The Second Summer Meeting was held on Wednesday and 

 Thursday, July 22nd and 23rd. 



Cheddar Caves. 



The party, about 35 in number, first visited Cox's Stalactite 

 Cavern at Cheddar, containing a wonderful variety of most 

 beautiful and delicate forms of stalactite and stalagmite, tinged 

 with various shades of pink and brown, and lit up with acetylene 

 gas. Some of the most striking are in the shape of basins, 

 which were formed on bases of clay constituting part of the 

 original floor, now washed away. The basins are therefore 

 suspended or partially so, and being kept full of water, add 

 greatly by their reflections to the iair}^-like character of the 

 scene. 



Mr. Balch, of Wells, a noted cave-explorer and authority on 

 the subject, who kindly acted as guide to the party, pointed out 

 how the main lines of action of the carboniferous and metalli- 

 ferous infiltrations have been along the joints of the limestone, 

 for these were the points first open to attack. The rainfall 

 soaking down from the top of the hill above first passed down 

 quite insignificant lines of joint and, charged with carbonic acid 

 from the atmosphere and from the plants through which it came, 

 attacked the carbonate of lime and dissolved it ; and no sooner 

 had it done that than it began to deposit it upon the walls in the 

 form of cr}'stalline carbonate of lime. There had been much 

 difierence of opinion as to why these two and contrary processes 

 should go on at the same time — why, while the water was eating 

 out the carbonate of lime from the rock itself, it should also be 

 precipitating it in that manner. Some alleged that it was a 

 matter of evaporation ; but after studying the question closely 



