26 Examination and Survey of Mitchell's Cave. 
of smaller ones, terminating at various distances from each other 
until the whole mass concentrated themselves into one general 
point. Here, as before, we could discover no bones by digging. 
At the eastern extremity of this last room, a large mass of the 
rock has fallen upon the floor, with one of its terminating angles 
projecting out some distance towards its centre. Over this we 
clambered, and then, descending about fifteen feet, we landed 
safely on the floor, near its centre, of the last room of this cave. 
Its length was thirty-seven feet, width fifteen, and height about 
■ twenty. The farther eastern extremity of this room was occupied 
by a pool of remarkably cool and pelucid water, beyond this, all 
farther progress was arrested by a firm barrier of rock. 
The calcareous depositions of this chamber far exceeded, in 
structure and beauty, anything of the kind that we had hitherto 
seen. It formed long pendant stalactites from the roof, finely 
fluted incrustations along the walls, and was spread out in repeat- 
ed alternations over the floor; and, although we spent some con- 
siderable time in pursuing our investigations in this apartment, 
we were in nowise successful in our labors. 
The entire length of this cave, is four hundred and thirty-two 
feet, about one half of which is in a perpendicular direction, the 
remainder, horizontally. Three days we devoted to its explora- 
tion, and from all the circumstances, it appears originally to have 
been formed by an extensive fissure in the rock; its present width 
having been attained by the slow and continued action of the 
disintegrating powers of water, operating for ages in its accom- 
plishment; and, although the construction of its floor corresponds 
in almost every degree with those described by Professor Buck- 
land and others, still, by carefully digging in every portion of its 
whole extent, that proved practicable, not the slightest vestige of 
an organised being did we anywhere discover. 
Upon closing these notes a curious question arises — what has 
become of the vast amount of matter that at some former period 
occupied the space now constituting this cave? as no opening or 
outlet could anywhere be discovered throughout its whole extent. 
