425 
of Edinburgh^ Session 1864 - 65 . 
an immense number of both stalactites and stalagmites of all sizes. 
Some of the latter had grown up so high as to have reached the roof 
and become supports to it, and were from 30 to 40 feet in girth. 
At the bottom or lowest part of the cave there is a large and 
deep pool of salt water, rising and falling with the tides, — proving 
a connection wdth the sea. 
The entrance of this cave is narrow, and about 8 feet high. 
The floor descends rapidly and irregularly. At the distance of 
25 or 30 yards from the mouth stood the stalagmite which forms 
the subject of the present notice. At this place the floor slopes 
downwards, and the roof is about 15 feet above the floor, so that 
the stalagmite had grown up high enough to nearly reach the 
roof. 
This stalagmite, the author’s father caused to be sawn across 
near its point of attachment to the floor. It was first sawn half 
across, and a nick made with the saw on the opposite side ; it was 
then pulled over, so as to cause fracture, the column having been 
previously secured by strong tackling and shears to prevent it 
falling over altogether. 
The author’s brother, Eear- Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, having- 
been commander-in-chief for the last four years on the North 
American Station, he also, as their father had done, spent the 
winter at Bermuda, and when there, paid one or two visits to the 
cave from which the stalagmite had been taken. He had no 
difficulty in recognising the trunk, by the evident appearance of its 
having been sawn across ; and he was at once struck by observing 
that it was again growing, by the accumulation of fresh calcareous 
matter. It occurred to him that it might be interesting to measure, 
as exactly as possible, the quantity deposited during the forty-four 
years which had elapsed since the stalagmite had been removed. 
With that view he made the following observations : — 
He noticed five drops of water falling on the trunk, — two at the 
rate, each of them, of three or four drops in the minute. The 
other three dropped much less frequently. 
On the part of the trunk where the two first-mentioned drops 
were falling, two small knobs of calcareous matter had been formed. 
On the part of the trunk where the three last-mentioned drops 
were falling, the deposit consisted of only a thin crust. 
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