THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE STERLINGBUSH 

 CALCITE CAVE 



BY NOAH T. CLARKE 



It may bs of interest to musetun workers with their many problems 

 in common, to know something of the story of this remarkable grotto 

 now housed in the State Museum. 



Several years ago in a quarry at Sterlingbush, Lewis county, N. Y., 

 an opening of some 4 feet in diameter was revealed after blasting. 

 This opening proved to be a puncture in the wall of a grotto which 

 broadened out to 10 feet in width and 5 feet in height and extended 

 back for 20 feet to a narrow vault of 4 feet in diameter, continuing 

 on a gradual slope downward for 20 feet more and terminating in an 

 inaccessible and almost perpendicular crevice. Realizing that in 

 the course of quarrying operations the crystal contents of this grotto 

 must be destroyed, it was decided to remove them to a place of 

 permanence where the public might have access to an exhibit as 

 near like the original as practicable. On account of the size of the 

 crystals the task of removal and safe shipment of some 14 tons was a 

 tremendous undertaking. Some of them weighed as much as a 

 thousand pounds and each, whether large or small, was a perfect 

 geometric development of calciiim carbonate delicately colored by 

 manganese to an amethyst in reflected light and pink in transmitted 

 Hght. 



The problem of reconstruction was ahead and careful detailed 

 study of the project had to be assumed and worked out by those 

 skilled in many arts. A blind closet about 8 feet square beneath an 

 arch in the mineral hall seemed a likely place for such an exhibit 

 but the difficulty in this was to obtain in such a small space the 

 depth required by the original cave. After much experiment it 

 was found that by placing upright a plate glass mirror 18 by 24 inches 

 at the farthest left-hand corner of the closet and at an angle of 46 

 to the observer and also a second mirror 14 by 34 inches, tipped back 

 slightly and hidden from view in a proposed recess on the right 

 directly opposite the first mirror, we could produce an apparent 

 depth of 2 5 feet and a gradual slope down to a narrow passage, as in 



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