wr. ee 
ity 
™. 
Oi PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
NATURAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 
OF STATEN 
ISLAND. 
VOL. VIII, No. 24. 
The regular monthly meeting of the 
Association was held at the residence 
of Mr. Howard R. Bayne, New Brighton, 
with the president in the chair. 
The following were elected active 
members: 
Brewster Boyd, West New Brighton. 
W. L. Rowlands, New Brighton. 
A. C, Knothe, New Brighton. 
W. A. Suydam, New Brighton. 
Mr. Wm. T. Davis read the following 
paper on 
STATEN ISLAND CAVES. 
Until recently, the only cave on Staten 
Island has been the one in the serpen- 
tine rock not far from Britton’s upper 
pond and near the reservoir of the 
Crystal Water Company. Though a 
pole can be thrust to a considerable 
distance beneath the rock, yet the more 
open part is hardly large enough to 
afford shelter to one person in a 
rain storm. This cave is not anatural 
one, but according to local history, it 
and some other holes on the hillside were 
dug, shortly after the Revolution, by 
Housman and his negro servant in their 
search for gold. 
A much larger cave, and one of more 
j recent origin, is to be found on the 
_ shore near Huguenot. It is in the drift 
material of the cliff, which the sea is 
gradually washing away, and owes 
its origin to the storms and high tides 
OCTOBER 10th, 1903. 
that have beaten against the cliff, and 
its preservation to a nearly horizontal 
layer of iron-cemented clay and pebbles. 
This last has been the main support of 
the roof, while the sea has washed a 
small hole in the cliff by means of 
which one may enter 
chamber within. 
When Mr. Philip Dowell and I 
measured the cave last June, we found 
the entrance about twenty-one inches 
high, by four and a half feet broad. 
The floor of the cave was covered with 
sand washed in by the sea. In one 
direction, it measured about ten feet, 
and in the other, nine feet, and the roof 
was four feet from the sandy floor. 
The severe summer storms have since 
enlarged the entrance somewhat; more 
shells and sand have been washed upon 
the floor, and the sea will shortly 
destroy our largest Staten Island cave. 
a considerable 
Mr. Davis also read the following 
necrological notice: 
AUGUSTUS RADCLIFFE GROTE. 
The daily papers of September 24th 
announced the death in Germany of 
Augustus Radcliffe Grote, to whom 
American entomology is particularhy 
indebted for his studies of the native 
moths, of which he described several 
hundred species. 
Since 1884 he had resided in Germany, 
either in Bremen or Hildesheim, and 
