A large, naturally occurring cavity formed underground, often in the face of a cliff or a hillside
an underground enclosure with access from the surface of the ground or from the sea explore natural caves hollow out as if making a cave or opening; "The river was caving the banks
When most of us see the term cave we think of something like Crystal Lake Cave or Mammoth Cave but to the miners a cave was a segment of of crevice which was generally wider than typical and generally contained ore minerals Many times the cave was an open space and did have the appearance of the common 'cave' but more frequently when they first encountered such it would have been filled entirely with red clay and ore minerals At notable example would have been Stewart's Cave
an underground enclosure with access from the surface of the ground or from the sea
As used by speleologists, this means an underground cavity, fissure, or tube large enough for penetration by humans Speleologists exclude 'rock shelters' (qv) and most 'sea caves' (qv), by either stipulating that the cavity must penetrate further into the ground than the largest dimension of its opening, or by requiring that it should have a permanent dark zone For the layman, the term 'cave' is commonly used to include rock shelters, and also to describe a single chamber within a cave system This latter use can result in some confusion in the media, eg 'the cave was destroyed' may merely mean 'one chamber was destroyed' The term 'cave system' is sometimes used for the more complex caves, or to avoid the type of confusion mentioned above