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210
The Fairy-Land of Science
·
Arabella B. Buckley
103
But
it
is
in
the
caves
and
hollows
of
the
earth
that
this
dissolved
matter
is
built
up
into
the
most
beautiful
forms.
If
you
have
ever
been
to
Buxton
in
Derbyshire,
you
will
probably
have
visited
a
cavern
called
Poole's
Cavern,
not
far
from
there,
which
when
you
enter
it
looks
as
if
it
were
built
up
entirely
of
rods
of
beautiful
transparent
white
glass,
hanging
from
the
ceiling,
from
the
walls,
or
rising
up
from
the
floor.
In
this
cavern,
and
many
others
like
it,*(See
the
picture
at
the
head
of
the
lecture.)
water
comes
dripping
through
the
roof,
and
as
it
falls
carbonate
of
lime
forms
itself
into
a
thin,
white
film
on
the
roof,
often
making
a
complete
circle,
and
then,
as
the
water
drips
from
it
day
by
day,
it
goes
on
growing
and
growing
till
it
forms
a
long
needle-shaped
or
tube-shaped
rod,
hanging
like
an
icicle.
These
rods
are
called
stalactites,
and
they
are
so
beautiful,
as
their
minute
crystals
glisten
when
a
light
is
taken
into
the
cavern,
that
one
of
them
near
Tenby
is
called
the
"Fairy
Chamber."
Meanwhile,
the
water
which
drips
on
to
the
floor
also
leaves
some
carbonate
of
lime
where
it
falls,
and
this
forms
a
pillar,
growing
up
towards
the
roof,
and
often
the
hanging
stalactites
and
the
rising
pillars
(called
stalagmites)
meet
in
the
middle
and
form
one
column.
And
thus
we
see
that
underground,
as
well
as
aboveground,
water
moulds
beautiful
forms
in
the
crust
of
the
earth.
At
Adelsberg,
near
Trieste,
there
is
a
magnificent
stalactite
grotto
made
of
a
number
of
chambers
one
following
another,
with
a
river
flowing
through
them;
and
the
famous
Mammoth
Cave
of
Kentucky,
more
than
ten
miles
long,
is
another
example
of
these
wonderful
limestone
caverns.
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