350 
STALACTITES. 
water deposits as it drips from the roof. Where 
clusters of these sparry concretions are collected to- 
gether, they frequently form grotesque figures, and 
furnish the curious traveller with ideas of animals, 
vegetables, &c. These mineral substances are met 
with only in calcareous soils, where the water which 
filters through the roofs of the caverns is charged 
with a quantity of carbonate of lime. The contact 
of the air and the evaporation which results, pre- 
cipitates the stony matter, and the drops of water, 
when they fall to the bottom of the cavern, leave at 
first merely a little calcareous ring behind them, 
which increases by degrees till it is changed into a 
tube with very thin sides. All those who have 
visited the caverns where the stalactites abound, 
agree that while they continue tubular their exter- 
nal surface is perfectly dry, and that the drop which 
is seen depending from the extremity of each stone 
comes from the interior. In proportion as the ca- 
vity of the tube diminishes by the addition of fresh 
particles of carbonate of lime, the water becomes 
obstructed in its passage, till at length the channel 
being completely filled up it can no longer find a 
passage that way, and therefore drops from the out- 
side. The deposition of earthy matter still conti- 
nuing in the same decree, soon alters the cvlindrical 
figure of the stalactite, and gives its surface a waved 
and rude appearance, which, when attentively exa- 
mined, displays the angles of a multitude of little 
crystals. 
The water that drops from the stalactites is still 
