40 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



trance where it is drained off to the south along a joint. A second 

 drain exists 150 feet beyond and carries some of the streams in times 

 of high water. The drains unite as shown on the map on the pre- 

 ceding page, the stream finally disappearing through a crevice too 

 small to enter and reaching the surface along the Cobleskill-B ray- 

 man contact line a short distance beyond the old cement quarry on 

 the road to Braymanville. The drains can be penetrated by a 

 person of average size who is willing to endure some discomfort. 

 Both are narrow and the upper is full of water at all times. They 

 are undoubtedly the latest passages developed in the cave. 



The entrance is only one of several mouths which have at one 

 lime or another served to discharge water from the cavern, but 

 the others are filled with clay and gravel beyond hope of clearing. 

 One of these will be found in the face of the cliff' in the upper 

 Rondout beds, the passage leading to it forming a lower gallery 

 known as the " Old Cave." For some 200 feet the floor of the main 

 cave has fallen into this passage and the gap has been spanned with 

 a wooden bridge. 



Perhaps the most interesting part of the cavern is the inner end 

 of the axial cavity and the branches reaching it. As has been 

 stated the stream rises from a passage which lies below its surface. 

 This is due to the fact that fragments fallen from the roof or walls 

 and a quantity of gravel brought in through the branch caves have 

 m.ade a dam which reaches above the ceiling of the part now 

 drowned. The *' West Branch " comes in from the south and from 

 a higher level; it is nearly filled with clay and broken blocks of 

 limestone and ends abruptly at an impassable barricade of the latter. 

 The other branch is called the '' Winding Way," a name justified 

 by its unusually tortuous course. From the main cave it runs north 

 and ends in a small hole known as " Fat Man's Misery." This is 

 seldom free of water. The passage beyond continues to the north 

 for several hundred feet to " Tlie Rotunda," a high domelike cham- 

 ber appearing like a mighty, gun barrel. It does not end here and is 

 evidently passable for some distance further but is well filled with 

 water. 



There are a number of tufa deposits in the cavern but few in the 

 form of stalactites and they can hardly be said to add any beauty 

 to the place. 



The stream is inhabited by the blind amphipod Crangonyx 

 tenuis (Smith) which however is the only true cave fomi to 

 be found. As in most of the caverns a few stray frogs and earth- 



