DESCRIPTION OF MARBLE CAVE, MISSOURI. 615 



chalybeate, sulphur, etc. Almost every variety of ordinary fruit finds the soil 

 and climate congenial. 



Nearly in the middle of the level space on the top of Roark Mountain is a 

 depression, an oval shaped sink, two hundred and fifty feet long and eighty feet 

 at its greatest width. This sink is the mouth of a funnel, standing perpendicular 

 above the mouth of a gigantic cave, called Marble Cave, after the rock by which 

 it is walled in. The mouth of the cave is in the middle of its roof. 



The sides of the funnel taper downward, rather steeply, till a depth of one 

 hundred feet is reached. Not so steeply, however, but that one can climb down 

 them along a rugged path. These sides are of huge blocks of flint-rock with 

 earth between, sufficient to afford, at intervals, footing for trees one foot and a 

 half in diameter. 



After having gone down the side of the funnel-shaped sink, one comes to 

 another opening nearly oval, thirty feet long and from five to fifteen feet in width, 

 the bottom of the funnel. This opening is at two places bridged over by large 

 rocks, which have fallen down and become wedged in. It really is a hole in 

 the top of the roof of the cave, which roof here is from fifteen to twenty-five feet 

 thick. Now the rock is grey marble. Below one of the wedged-in rocks, a 

 ledge projects, jotting out from the side of the hole in the roof of the cave. A 

 path leads to that ledge. From the ledge one descends by means of a ladder, 

 sixty-five feet long, to the top of a pile of rock, earth and rubbish, rising upward 

 in the shape of an irregular truncated cone, from about the middle of the floor of 

 the cave. That pile is about two hundred feet high. A rough, winding path 

 along its side leads to the floor of the cave. 



The cave is nearly circular, in the shape of an inverted bowl, flattened at the 

 top. That flat top is of dove-colored marble and two hundred feet in diameter. 

 The floor of the cave is seven hundred feet in diameter. The roof is about two 

 hundred and fifty feet high. The sides along the bottom are of granite. Above 

 that comes a layer of onyx, mostly white and sixty feet thick; above that thick 

 layers of dove-colored, variegated, brown, red and drab marble, mostly dove- 

 colored ; and between the layers of marble are thin layers of flint rock. Between 

 the layers of marble in the sides and the flat marble top of the roof is limestone. 



The base of the cone-shaped pile in the cave is from two hundred to four 

 hundred feet in diameter. It comes at one place within a short distance from 

 the wall of the cave and at another leaves a space of nearly five hundred feet. 

 It seems to have been caused by a volcanic upheaval and increased by earth and 

 debris falling down through the opening above. At noon the vertical rays of the 

 sun strike the top, rendering the strata in the roof dimly visible, and more clearly 

 outlining the upper part of the cone-shaped pile. For the rest, the cave is dark. 



Countless bats have for centuries been swarming in the cave and through 

 the passages and rooms connected therewith, whenever the weather is cool. The 

 floor of the cave is covered by a layer of guano, the deposit of those bats, and 

 by myriads of carcasses of such as died and decayed long since ; which last is 

 evidenced by numerous small bones found mixed in. That layer of guano has 



