A careful test of the temperature of the atmosphere showed it to be fifty-eight degrees.

PINE RUN CAVE.

This also is a small cave easily visited from Galena, being less than two miles distant on the Marionville road.  The entrance faces the road and is on the same level, consequently it is one of the easiest to visit.  Just within is seen an opening in the ceiling, which we are told is one of the two ways to an upper chamber whose chief attraction is a dripstone piano, and the means of ascending is at hand in the form of a Spanish ladder; but an attempt of that sort might even cause the new woman to hesitate, and who hesitates is lost.  The ascent was not made.  We advanced on a level with the road for a distance of perhaps twenty feet, when the direction of the cave changed with a right angular turn and we were in a straight gallery about two hundred and fifty feet long and fifteen feet in width, the height gradually decreasing to about three feet towards the upper end, where it widened out into a low but broad chamber.  The floor of this chamber is most beautiful.  It is composed of a series of connected calcite bowls whose beautifully fluted rims are of regular and uniform height, and all are equally filled with clear, still water.  A great number of these basins are said to have been destroyed by an ax in the hands of a poor witless creature for the gratification of a burst of temper, and a magnificent stalagmitic column, too heavy for one man to lift, lay detached and broken, in proof that his body did not share the feebleness of his mind.

Beyond these basins is a low passage through which is found the second entrance to the upper chamber, but the basins must be crossed in order to reach it, and this is not an easy undertaking even when their water supply is low, but in the early summer they are almost full.

There are said to be more than one hundred caves in Stone County, one of which is supposed to be fully as large as Marble Cave, if not larger, and is located in the southern part of the county but has not been explored.

Mill Cave is in the northeast of the county, and at the entrance is a saw mill which receives its working power from the cave stream.  Inside the cave there is a lake.

Hermit’s Cave is a few miles from Galena, and is so named on account of having been used as a dwelling by its former owner, who kept a coffin in which he intended to place himself before the final summons, but was overtaken by death in the forest and it was never used.  He wrote sermons on the rocks in his cave and one of these was afterwards removed.

Wolf’s Den is also near Galena, and has been utilized as a sheep fold.

Wild Man’s Cave is near Galena, and on account of the stories with which people have been frightened, can only be visited by permission and with a guard stationed at the entrance.

Reynard’s Cave is four miles west of Galena on the farm of Dr. Fox, but is so nearly filled up with dripstone that only crawling room remains.  The doctor’s place is a fine locality for the collection of fossils.