CAVE, a hollow extending beneath the surface of the earth (Lat. cavea, from cavils, hollow). The word "cavern" (Lat. caverna) is a synonym. Caves have been the centres round which have clustered many legends and superstitions, the abode of the sibyls and the nymphs in Roman mythology, in Greek temples, as well as the places where the oracles were delivered.
Caves have been used in all ages by mankind for habitation, refuge and burial. Sanctity attaches to caves in many parts of the world as the abode of powerful spirits, while their use as burial places confers a special importance upon them, since inter course with the dead, especially those who in life were powerful and eminent in social life, necessarily takes place in proximity to the burial place. Legends like those of Arthur cluster round the caves wherein the hero sleeps his long sleep, whence he shall emerge in due course to a greater glory and a wider empire. We therefore find in them most important testimony as to the ancient history of mankind because they contain evidence of his industry, his mode of life, his ideas and his artistic capacity as well as of the plant and animal world in which he lived (see ARCHAE OLOGY: Palaeolithic Age), and animals by which they were formerly inhabited. Caves are frequently considered, among prim itive peoples, as the passages to the underworld and as the homes of dead heroes. The names given to caves betray the beliefs of the peoples who name them in the mysterious other-worldliness of these caverns.
An important class of caves is that composed of those which have been cut out of calcareous rocks by the action of carbonic acid in the rainwater, combined with the mechanical friction of the sand and stones set in motion by the streams which have, at one time or another, flowed through them. They occur at various levels, and are to be met with wherever the strata are sufficiently compact to support a roof.
Caves formed by the action of carbonic acid and the action of water open on the abrupt sides of valleys and ravines at various levels, and are arranged round the main axes of erosion, just as the branches are arranged round the trunk of a tree. The caves themselves ramify in the same irregular fashion as the valleys. Sometimes they are still the passages of subterranean streams; but very frequently the drainage has found an outlet at a lower level, and the ancient watercourses have been deserted. These in every case present unmistakable proof that they have been traversed by water in the sand, gravel and clay which they con tain, as well as in the worn surfaces of the sides and bottom. In all districts where there are caves there are funnel-shaped depressions of various sizes called pot-holes or swallow-holes, or betoires, "chaldrons du diable," "marmites des geants," or "katavothra," in which the rain is collected before it disappears into the subterranean passages. They are to be seen in all stages, some being mere hollows which only contain water after excessive rain, while others are profound vertical shafts into which the water is continually falling.
America has many caves, some of them picturesquely named by the Indians. For an account of the chief American caves see