Tour to the Caves in Virginia, 63 



the Caves — it was settled by soldiers of the revolution, who re- 

 ceived the farms as bounty lands. 



Monday, 23. After an early repast, we proceeded to Wyer^s 

 Cave, situate on the south branch of the Shenandoah, approach- 

 ed by a road of difficult access ; there is an iron forge a little 

 below, and a tavern within eight hundred yards of the spot, kept 

 by Mr. Bryant, who rents the farm on which the caves are 

 found. The three slaves whom we had hired at Port Deposit, 

 had preceded us, and awaited us at the entrance of the caves, 

 furnished with tools for digging ; the principal object of our visit 

 being to ascertain if the caves contained fossil bones. The fre- 

 quent descriptions I had read of this cave, had prepared me on 

 the present occasion, to experience disappointment. The en- 

 trance is difficult of access, and dirty — the floors are constantly 

 interrupted by precipitous risings and depressions, and by large 

 broken masses of the limestone in which the caves occur. Tn 

 some of the chambers, the floors are loaded with wet tenacious 

 clay, and the stalactites are for the most part discoloured by the 

 water which percolates the rock from the red sandstone above. 

 We made the slaves dig in two places in the lowest part of 

 two chambers the most likely to contain fossils. The floor is for 

 the most part destitute of stalagmite, but abounds in many places 

 with loose fragments ; occasionally, indeed, with large rocks fall- 

 en from above. In the first chamber, which is sunk considerably 

 beneath the adjacent rooms, the labourers dug five feet deep, at 

 first through a clay soil, which became moister below, intermix- 

 ed with numerous fragments of stalactite ; they did not reach 

 the bottom rock here. The next digging occurred at the extreme 

 end of the first left branch of the cave, and after excavating 

 three feet deep, they came to solid rock. We now ascended lad- 

 ders, and crawled and scrambled through several chambers, most 

 of which presented such a monotonous aspect, that we grew fa- 

 tigued, and proposed to our guide to return. The original or 

 natural entrance, consists of a mere fissure in the rock, of a size 

 only sufficient for the passage of a fox ; a circumstance which 

 diminishes the chance of finding fossil bones. It was to Mr. 

 Wyers following a ground-hog (Arctomys Monax) to a hole in this 

 hill, that the discovery of the cave was owing, in February 1806. 



The disturbed and confused appearance of the interior of the 

 cave, as well as of the huge masses of mountain rock which are 



