The Arch Cave runs north-westerly from the line of road to the Carlotta Arch, and has a gradual descent. It is about a hundred yards long, and in some places about half a chain wide. The roof is decked with beauty; the floor is covered with dust. There is now but one complete column in the centre, and that is formed by a stalactite which extends in a straight line from the roof to the floor. It is surrounded by a number of other magnificent pendants of a similar kind, more or less ornate, and crowded together in rich profusion. Some of them have grown until they nearly touch bold rocks which jut out from the walls, and the spaces between the larger cylindrical forms are filled by stalactites of various lesser lengths, some of which are figured so as to represent festoons of flowers. The complete pillar tapers from the upper to the lower end. For about two-thirds of the way down it is compounded of several stalactitic lines; the remainder is a simple shaft with irregular surface. To the right of it is a marvellous piece of formation like the head of a lion with the forelegs and the hoofs of a bull, posed so as to resemble Assyrian sculpture. [Illustration: THE ARCH CAVE.] At one time there were in this cave five pillars as perfect as the one which remains, but in 1860 they were destroyed by a Goth from Bathurst. There are numerous columns of dimensions not so great along the sides of the cave, and at every step appear fresh objects of admiration. Some of the stalactites are resonant, and so is the floor, which, on the thinnest portion, responds imitatively to the tramping of feet. In a passage on the right hand side is a stalactite which the cave-keeper has carefully watched for 18 years, in order to form some idea as to the rate of stalactitic growth. He has always found a drop of water clinging to the lowest surface as though it were ready to fall, and yet during the whole term of 18 years the actual addition to the solid stalactite has been only half-an-inch in length, of a thickness equal to that of an ordinary cedar-covered lead pencil. It is evident, from observation of other portions of this cave, that some formations have been created in a manner less slow. Still, it is probable there are stalactites the growth of which has been more gradual than the one subjected to special scrutiny.