Account of the Great Cate at Gailenreuth , in Franconia , <§ re. B7 
breccia, composed chieily of bones cemented by stalagmites. The 
chamber C is connected with the vertical fissure G, by a long 
and low passage F ; the length of which is not represented in 
the Plate for want of room. It is so extremely low, that the 
traveller is obliged to traverse it by crawling on his hands and 
knees. The vertical fissure G, which has very considerable 
depth and a width of only three feet, can be descended only by 
supporting the hands and feet on niches cut in the opposite 
sides of the fissure. The cave ends with an oven-shaped cavity 
H, which has been excavated artificially by the extraction of 
bones and skulls from the osseous breccia. 
To this general description of the Gailenreuth Cave, as seen 
by Professor Buckland, it may be proper to add the more jni- 
nute account of it given by M. Deluc. Accompanied by the 
inspector of the caverns, who took with him a man who carried 
a ladder and some lights, the party first ascended the Wiesent, 
about half a league on the Muggendorf side, and then crossed it 
at the Mills of Bamfort. The precipitous sides of the valley had 
every where the appearance of ruins, and they advanced to- 
wards' each other at the points where the mills are placed. They 
here crossed over to the left bank, and arrived at the cavern af- 
ter an ascent of nearly half an hour. The entrance, which is at 
first narrow, is under a large rock, but the passage soon opens 
into a wide space, divided into several cells, apparently produ- 
ced in part by the decomposition of the limestone, which is here 
mixed with a great deal of sand. Beyond this every thing is 
encrusted with stalactites, below, above, and on the sides. 
Near a crevice opening at the foot of a mass detached from 
the superior strata, they partly descended by a ladder, about 
twenty feet long, into one of the lower chambers (viz. C in the 
Plate), where the bones had been accumulated in the greatest 
abundance. This crevice had once been nearly obstructed by 
stalactites, which were cut away in order to widen the passage,, 
and there are marks of some fissures of this kind having been 
completely closed up in the same manner. The inspector in- 
formed Deluc, that when this cave was first entered, the bones 
were not all covered with stalactites, so that it was then easy to 
obtain well preserved bones, among which were entire heads, 
and other bones characteristic of the species of animal. The 
