THE PERMIAN SYSTEM IN KANSAS. 35 



a north-side tributary of the Salt fork, not far from Evans- 

 ville. It is supposed to be the largest of the gypsum-caves 

 of Kansas, and may be called the Comanche cave, from being 

 located in Comanche county.* The east and main entrance 

 is picturesquely located a short distance back from the 

 creek in a deep right-hand ravine through which flows a 

 perennial brooklet of limpid but gypsum-tainted water, 

 issuing from the cave itself ; it is a broadly-arched portal 

 about 14 feet in height in a wall of gypsum. Near the 

 latter, and a little south of the entrance, a straight and re- 

 markably tall-trunked tree stands sentinel. The cave 

 covers a little less than 150 yards of the course of the 

 brooklet, which, from a small gypsum-walled canyon, en- 

 ters it through a west portal somewhat like the east one, 

 but smaller. The cave is slighth- sinuous and consists of 

 three rooms separated by two low arches. The east room 

 is 14 feet high, 20 to 25 wide, and 123 long. This is fol- 

 lowed by an arch, which for 13 feet has a height of only 

 about 6 feet. The middle room is 12 feet high, 30 wide, 

 and 50 long, and is lighted in the south side of its roof 

 through a 6 X 12-foot shaft-like opening that broadens 

 into a funnel in the high ground above the cave.f Through 

 a second arch, this middle room connects with the west 

 room, which is lower and much longer than the others and 

 is flooded with the waters of the brooklet, here expanded 

 into a long pool upon which a small boat has sometimes 

 been used by visitors. The floor of the cave is more or 

 less strewn with blocks of gypsum that have fallen from 

 the roof. A bloom of snowy gypsum covers some parts 

 of the walls and roof, and brown cauliflower-like masses 

 and concretionary layers of clay-impregnated gypsum are 

 forming on the floor in shallow pools along the course of 

 the streamlet. 



*The best railroad-point from which to viBit the Comanche cave 

 is Coldwater, a convenient approach being via Neecatuno^a and the 

 John Duckworth place (formerly the post-village of Duckworth). 



tTill recently, a cottonwood tree Houriehed on the slope of this 

 funnel. 



