"At J.P. Fisher's on Spencer Creek, Ralls County, there is a cave having an entrance of ninety feet wide by twenty feet high. The Lower Trenton beds occupy the floor, with the upper cavernous beds above. On the bluff, at a distance of one hundred and fifty yards back, there is a sink-hole which communicates with the cave. Within the cave is a cool, clear spring of water, and Mr. F. said he could keep meat fresh there for six weeks during midsummer." "The Third Magnesian Limestone which occupies such a large portion of Southwest Missouri, often contains very large caves. One of them, known as Friede's cave, is six or eight miles Northwest of Rolla, on Cave Spring Creek." "It is said to have been explored for several miles, but I only passed in a few hundred yards. The stalactites here are very beautiful, assuming the structure of satin spar. A very clear stream of water issues out. West of the Gasconade, on Clifty Creek, is a remarkable Natural Bridge which I have elsewhere described in Geological Survey of Missouri, 1855-71, page 16." "Mr. Meek speaks of a large and interesting cave on Tavern Creek, in Miller County. Dr. Shumard estimates a cave on Bryant's Fork, in Ozark County, to be a mile and a half long." This description of Dr. Shumard's is in the Geological Survey of Missouri, 1855-71, page 196, where he says: "The entrance is thirty-five feet wide and thirty feet high, and is situated at the foot of a perpendicular cliff, and far above the water-level of Bryant. Just within the entrance it expands to sixty or seventy feet, with a height of about fifty feet; and this part of the cave has been used by the citizens of the county as a place for holding camp-meeting. I estimated its length at not far short of one mile and a half. The main passage is in general quite spacious, the roof elevated, and the floor tolerably level, but often wet and miry. For some distance beyond the entrance there is not much to attract attention; but as we proceed, at the far extremity the chambers are quite as picturesque as the most noted of the well-known Mammoth Cave. The ceilings, sides and floor are adorned with a multitude of stalactites and stalagmites arranged in fanciful combinations, and assuming a variety of fantastic and beautiful forms." Many of these caves contain niter, which occurs as a mineral and not as evidence of former animal occupation, it being found in the form of effervescenses on the walls. Dr. Shumard mentions several of this character in Pulaski County, the most noted being Niter Cave, in the Third Magnesian Limestone, with a wide entrance thirty feet above the level of the Gasconade. On page 201, he also gives a charming description of one of the immense springs that are numerous in this region and that I have never seen elsewhere. He says: