us to follow the road, while he, on his mule, took a short cut across the hills and valleys, to try to find men not too much occupied with their own affairs on a fine Monday morning, in corn plowing time, to join our expedition.  As neither our small companion, Merle, nor ourselves, had any knowledge of the locality of our destination, we were carefully instructed to follow the main road to the Wilderness Ridge, and keeping to that, pass the Indian Creek road and all others that are plain, but turn down the second dim road and follow it until stopped by a new fence where we would be met and conducted.  So long as points to be passed held out, these directions gave us no trouble whatever, even the first dim road offering no obstacle to the pleasure of our progress; but the second dim road proved so elusive we traveled many miles in search of it, finally bringing up against a place Merle was familiar with and knew to be a long way off the track of our intentions.  As there was nothing to be done but return we naturally accepted the situation and did that; presently finding Mr. Powell and the Messrs. Irwin, on whose land the cave is, patiently waiting for us in what was really not a road at all, but rather, in this region of fossils, the badly preserved impression of one long since extinct.

The new fence was opened at two places that we might drive through and be saved the exertion of walking a considerable distance, then the horses were left in the shade while we scrambled down the steep hill-side covered with sharp-edged, broken rock, about mid-way down which is the mouth of the cave, yawning like a narrow, open well.  Above this a stout windlass has been arranged on two forked logs.

A few feet below the surface the cave spreads out jug-shaped, so that in descending nothing is touched until the floor is reached, one hundred feet beneath the surface; consequently the only danger to be apprehended is a fall.

Each of the three men present kindly offered to go down and make the exploration with me, but that would have left only two at the windlass, and for a man’s weight, safety requires four.  Should an accident occur, assistance would be necessary, and some time lost in finding it; so, to the undisguised satisfaction of one and equally evident relief of the others, it was reluctantly decided that the trip must be given up, and therefore we are indebted to the kindness of Captain Powell[3] for the following description of Fairy Cave: 

     “The Cave referred to is situated in Section 24, Township 23, Range
     23, in Stone County, Missouri, and is on the homestead of one of
     three brothers named Irwin.