348 NLW YOUK STATE .MUSEUM 



B(.'cr;iti toniiiim- a ^iroiiu- ])r<»ii'ci ion. A pillar of njiper New Scot- 

 land snpjioris ilic most jd'ojecting portion of ilio J^eoraft and so 

 prodiu'cs an arch 4 fcot liiji:li [y.\. 12]. 



Caves. A considerable nund)er of limestone caverns have been 

 found in the Schoharie rej^ion but none have reached more than 

 local celebrity. The two best known are Ball's cave on Barton 

 hill [ma]):XIIIc, 12] and Howe's cave near the station of that 

 name on ilie Delaware and Iludsou Railroad. Only the latter has 

 been made accessible to the ])ublic, though in recent years it has 

 been ninch neglected and is scarcely any longer visited. It is of 

 the nature of a long narrow lissure in the Manlius limestone 

 occasionally widening into chambers of some considerable extent, 

 the walls and roof of which are incrusted with stalactites and the 

 floor covered with stalagmite deposits. The entrance to the cave 

 is at the side of the hill and continues mostly on the same level. 

 It clearly represents an ancient underground river channel which 

 was probably tributary to the Cobleskill, and is almost wholly 

 dissolved out of the Maulius limestone. The entrance to this 

 cavern is shown in plate 22. It was discovered in 1842. Ball's 

 cave was first explored in 1831 and Avas at that time one of the 

 few caverns known in this country. Originally discovei*ed by Mr 

 Ball, the proprietor of the land, it subsequently passed into the 

 hands of W. H. Knoepfel, who announced his intention of opening 

 the cavern to the i)ublic in 1851. The project however was 

 abandoned and the condition of the cavern is today what it was 

 75 years ago. It is most readily approached from the road which 

 ascends Barton hill north of the limestone outcrops. Just after 

 crossing the Schoharie-^Schenectady boundary line a private road 

 leads southward to the house of ^Ir Charles II. Van Pelt. From 

 here a wood path of about half a mile in length brings one to the 

 cave entrance. This is merely a rather Avide fissure in the Goey- 

 mans beds which everywhere in this region are strongly fissured. 

 The main cavern is dissolved out of thie Manlius strata, its greatest 

 depth being about GO feet. Sink holes aie numerous in the region 

 about the cave. The following description of the exjdoration of 



