There are yet many promising
caves to be explored in this region, and if my strength holds out a
few years I hope to see them all.
"T. S. Powell."
POWELL CAVE.
As a measure of consolation for the disappointment of not seeing the
beauty of Fairy Cave, Mr. Irwin suggested that only a quarter of a mile
further on was another, recently discovered and worthy of a visit,
although small.
In that region of steep hills and sharp-edged rocks, a great amount of
travel can be added to the experience of a tender-foot in a short
distance. The quarter of a mile seemed to stretch out in some mysterious
way as we worked on it, but the variety and abundance of attractions are
more than ample compensation.
The view was fine, including as it did the deep ravine and grassy,
wooded slopes rising three hundred feet above, with here and there a
handsome ledge of marble exposed like the nearly buried ruin of a
forgotten temple of some past age. Scattered about in great profusion
among the broken rock on the surface of these hill-sides we observed a
water deposit of iron ore. It is a brown hematite and in some cases
shows the structure of the bits of wood it has replaced. Since this
region has from the earliest time produced a generous growth of
vegetation, the decay of which has yielded a never-failing supply of
acids to assist in carving the caves and then in their decoration, the
presence of the ore is not difficult to account for.
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