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TEAN MEE 
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ON THE WYANDOTTE CAVE AND ITS FAUNA. 407 
the locks of Medusa, and often extend in slender runners to a re- 
remarkable length. The gypsum rosettes occur in the remote re- 
gions of the cave and are very beautiful. There are also masses 
of amorphous gypsum of much purity. The floor in many places 
is covered with curved branches, and, what is more beautiful, of 
perfectly transparent acicular crystals, sometimes mingled with 
imperfect twin-crystals. The loose crystals in one place are in 
such quantity as to give the name of “Snow Banks” to it. In 
other places it takes the form of japanning on the roof and wall 
rock. 
In one respect the cave is superior to the Mammoth—in its vast 
rooms, with step-like domes, and often huge stalagmites on central 
hills. In these localities the rock has been originally more fract- 
ured or fragile than elsewhere, and has given way at times of 
disturbance, piling masses on the floor. The destruction having 
reached the thin-bedded strata above, the breaking down has pro- 
. œeded with greater rapidity, each bed breaking away over a 
narrower area than that below it. When the heavily-bedded rock 
has been again reached, the breakage has ceased, and the stratum 
Temains as a heavy coping stone to the hollow dome. Of course 
the process piles a hill beneath, and the access of water being 
rendered more easy by the approach to the surface, great stalac- 
tites and stalagmites are the result. In one place this product 
Sa mass extending from floor to ceiling, a distance of thirty 
or forty feet, with a diameter of twenty-five feet, and a beautifully 
fluted circumference. The walls of the room are encrusted with 
Cataract-like masses, and stalagmites are numerous. The largest 
room is stated to be 245 feet high and 350 feet long, and to 
fontain a hill of 175 feet in height. On the summit are three large 
stalagmites, one of them pure white. When this scene is lit up, it i 
is peculiarly grand to the view of the observer at the foot of the 
ang hill, while it is not less beautiful to those on the summit. 
“te is no room in the Mammoth Cave equal to these two. | 
Se must not omit to mention the kind attention to the wants of 
 Suests constantly -displayed by Mr. Conrad, the present 
proprietor of the hotel, and the equally useful guidance of Mr. 
Roth 
> ; T rock, the owner of the cave. Visitors will also find on their 
MAF thither an American Auerbach’s hotel at Leavenworth, near 
„© steamboat landing. This excellent house is not haunted, like 
pean predecessor at Leipsic, by either a Mephistophiles or 
> n, but by a landlord (Mr. Humphreys), whose charges are 
