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:

"Ozark County is bountifully supplied with springs of the finest water,
and some of them of remarkably large size. The largest one is situated