Gems Notes and Extracts Augusto Castellani, Mrs. John Brogden 1871

STALACTITE. '213They have a fibrous breakage ; are translucent, of awhite or yellowish-white colour, and a smooth ortubercular surface.When water loaded with calcareous matter filtersin a cavern, the first drops that dripfrom the roofleave, after evaporation, a small ring of solid substance,which, by the successive addition of fresh drops,increases in size, while gradually forming a kind ofjutting cylinder. Each following drop depositing onthe sides of the littlecylinder additional solid matter,increases itby degrees, and especially on the upperpart, where the drops remain longer, and thus it takesthe form of a reversed cone.The watery part which falls from the stalactite onthe ground is not totally deprived of calcareous substances,and therefore is not entirely absorbed, butleavesa deposit which rises in the form of an uprightcone, and is called stalagmite. Thus the two cmes,always increasing in the same line, frequently jointogether and form columns, which seem placed therefor the support of the roof.If the water, impregnated with calcareous substances,glides slowly over the walls of a grotto,it leavesdeposits arranged in festoons or disposed in drapery ofmost varied form, and these are distinguished from'other stalactites by the name of drapery configurations.'and these festoons, are seenStalactites, stalagmites,in many caverns and natural grottoes both in the oldand new world. The most celebrated are those of Antiparos,of Collepardo, of Bauman, and of Monsummano.