features presented. If the
present natural entrance to the cave were the only way into this room
from the outside, the distance was too great and beset with many
difficulties; besides which the final passage is too small to admit an
animal of sufficient size to carry any considerable portion of even a
very small horse. But if at that period the room had direct
communication with the outside through an opening since closed, the
shape of the walls indicate that it must have been a pot-hole in the
roof, and through this an animal could have entered by falling, which
the horse and others may have done. But it seems most probable that the
remains were carried in by the water through such a hole before it was
closed at the beginning of the Quaternary period, when the erosion of
the Hills was most active.

Rainy Chamber also contains a large and beautiful assortment of the
small polished and coated pebbles called cave pearls.

The guide being anxious that we should not fail to see the Niagara Room,
we now turned toward a low, broad opening in the wall, a short distance
to the right of the entrance, where the rising floor and descending
ceiling, failing to meet, had overlapped; so we made our way up a steep,
smooth bank, and then down on the other side over a broken, rocky
surface for a distance of about twenty feet, when the roof at last
joined the floor and two small water-worn holes at the point of junction
revealed an untempting passage within. The broader of these holes was
three feet, but too low to be considered an entrance; the other was
round but certainly not so large as our guide, who was preparing to
enter it with doubts of his ability to make the trip, on account of
having increased in size since his one entrance there, on which occasion
two smaller guides pulled him through the tightest places. Carefully
comparing his size with that of the hole he sat beside, there was no
possibility of doubt that if the attempt were made he would stick fast,
and that would place our little party in dire straits. Consequently I
insisted that it should not be, but he was unwilling that Niagara should
be missed when so near. Finally I positively refused to go unless he
would consent to give us instructions and remain where he was while we
went without him, to which he at last yielded with extreme
unwillingness. He had frequently shown us the guide's marks, and now
earnestly cautioned me to advance only as they point, and turn back