338 



ME. H. N. DA VIES ON TEE DISCOVERY OF [Allg. I904, 



was exposed. The deposit is chalky, soft, and laminated, the 

 average thickness of the laminae being -08 inch, and that of 

 the whole mass from 5 to 12 inches. There is a considerable 

 mixture of fine sand with the calcareous matter, the residue, after 

 treatment with strong acid, being nearly 40 per cent, of the weight 

 tested. Then beds of a harder and semi-crystalline porous character 

 are found in shallow pockets in the cave-earth in some parts of 

 the cavern, notably near h (fig. 1, p. 335). 



Curious dome-like masses of granular and semicrystalline material, 

 from 6 to 18 inches in height, occur in two spots marked r 

 and /, fig. 1. They appear to be growths of calcareous mud, 



such as may form around the 



Fig. 3. — Dome-like mass of granu- 

 lar and semicrt/stalline material. 



mouths of springs from which 

 waters highly charged with 

 carbonate of lime were issuing. 

 The presence of such springs 

 in the cave might explain the 

 occurrence of the beds of 

 travertine - like deposit which 

 are found, as stated above, at 

 various levels in the cave-earth. 

 That these beds, and the upper 

 stalagmite-floor, are a deposit 

 from such slowly-flowing water, 

 dammed up for a time in the 

 deeper parts of the cavern, and 

 not a drip-formation, is certain. 

 This latter is indeed found in 

 the cavern, and gives rise to some beautifully-formed stalactites and 

 stalagmites, but these are of a different character altogether from 

 the layers of chalky deposit of the upper floor and the dome-like 

 vents. 



Height: 6-iS inches 



a = Pipe ; It = Calcareous layers ; 

 c= Floor of cavern. 



The cave- earth. — This is a deposit of reddish mud from 3 to 

 8 feet deep, containing angular masses of limestone, large and small r 

 which have at various times fallen from the roof ; and boulders 

 of the same rock, well-rounded at the edges, evidently transported 

 by flood-waters. Bedding is distinctly marked in some parts of the 

 deposit, and the thin bands of crystalline stalagmite occur in small 

 areas and at various depths in it. In portions of the mass, the 

 calcareous deposit has penetrated from tcp to bottom, and the whole 

 thickness has been cemented into a calcareous breccia. The upper 

 stalagmite-bed covers the cave-earth as a continuous sheet, and the 

 underlying bed, to be next described, forms the floor upon which it 

 rests: there being no break in the continuity of the 

 deposit in those parts of the cavern which have been opened out. 

 It thins out rapidly in fissure g, until the upper and lower beds of 

 stalagmite rest one upon the other at a distance of about 25 feet 

 from the mouth of the fissure, where the floor is cut transversely by a 



