190 president's address. 



"The Stump-Cross Cavern is situated in the moor beyond 

 Greenhow Hill, and about midway between Pateley Bridge, in 

 the valley of the JNicld, on the north, and Bardon Tower, in the 

 valley of the Wharf, on the south. It is the property of Edward 

 York, Esq., of Bewerley Hall, Pateley Bridge, and in the occu- 

 pation of Mr. "W. Newbould, landlord of the Grouse Inn, lower 

 down the road, who acts also as the guide. It extends about 

 500 feet in a tortuous, irregular, descending channel, somewhat 

 like a lead mine, first to the north and then to the south, to a 

 dept of 100 feet perpendicular. At times it is narrow, at times 

 wide, now lofty, and then suddenly so low that stooping down is 

 necessary to prevent the head colliding with the roof. 



The floor is formed of bare, damp, and rather slippery stalag- 

 mite, or of rough fragments hewn down from the walls of the 

 passage to make it practicable as a road. Stalagmitic stumps 

 here and there are left, and at the most irregular parts a hand- 

 rail is conveniently placed. From the roof in many parts, 

 especially near and at the terminal enlargement called " The 

 Church," which is about 30 feet long and 12 feet high, hang in 

 fantastic profusion stalactites of all possible forms and sizes, in 

 cylindrical rods, hollow or solid ; laminae of curious make, some 

 streaked with red and having serrated edges; some simulate the 

 pendant ears of pigs and elephants and other and strange objects. 



Some of the roof stalactites are short, slender, and pointed, as 

 if beginning to be formed; others are of greater bulk and length; 

 some reach downwards nearly to the corresponding stalagmitic 

 elevation below, which is gradually increased by the deposit 

 from the ceaseless droppings from the stalactite of a calcareous 

 solution, and which in the course of centuries, to be reckoned 

 by hundreds, would bring about its coalescence with the equally 

 slowly descending stalactite ; others there are which have long 

 since completed the junction of their lower and upper parts and 

 formed pillars which appear to support the roof. We were told 

 by the guide that measurements had been made of one stalactite 

 at the interval of fourteen years, and that the growth during 

 that period had been found to have been only a fraction of an 

 inch (?) 



