The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1878-12-21
A Big Cave.

but wonder-stricken writer sends to the
New York Herald an account of three
young men, who were out prospecting for
caves, who dug and developed a rabbit
hole until they passed into subterra-
mean realm as big as the city of New
York, and architecturally almost assplen-
did, and eontainingin its stately halls
petrifed men and skeletons, like those
wonderful clay figures recently brought
to light in Gramercy Park which were
so petri6ed that they never received any
of the cipher dispatches showered on
them from Florida and South Carolina,
and answered all of them unconsciously.
Luray is in Page county, Virginia,
and this cave opens in a small hill, a
spur of the Messanutten range. After
entering through a low and narrow pas
sage-way, descending few feet the Wis
itor finds himself In chamber, perhaps
100 feet square and 40 feet high The
ceiling is Of smooth limestone, the walls
are of stone of every conceivable color,
with all kinds of futing and columns,
and at the far end are gigantic columns,
rising from floor to ceiling, and arching
over like oak trees. The wonder of this
room is thus described :
'1n the centre, facing the entrance and
imbedded in the rock of the floor, is a
double figure, as of two persons clasped in
each others arms and III a STOPPING pos
ture. The features of one though irldis-
o+ ILL - Dx, tb.1e, - fx.l1
woman. The other face appears to be
pressed closely to the body of the first:
the limbs are distinctly visible, as also
parts of the arms. Whether they are the
petrifed remains of human beings or
whether figures roundly carved out of
stone is hard to tell. Certain it is thai
they do not belong to the natural forma-
tion of the cave.
The traveller then passes into room
which is a fac simile of an old Roman
chapel, supported on all sides by Corin-
THAN columns of bronze, and blue, and
white, with ceiling of buff. The feature
of this ''old Roman chapel is modern
organ, with all pipes. Leaving the chapel
by large hall, the visitor comes into an
| imperial chamber, most brilliant in color,
and dazzling with stalactites than any
before seen. Here on a lateral shell is the
figure of man as if seated on chair,
with the profile Of Napoleon L There
is also the image of an eagle with ex-
tended wings, and there are two anvils.
| Beyond this is chamber containing a
bath, five feet wide.
Having passed the blacksmith shop,
and the chapel and the path, of course
We come to a great theatre
.'0n every side of us were beautiful
white columns and pillars, looking as if
| they had been sculptured from the whit
est marble. A few steps further brought
| us into the auditorium of the theatre.
| all my life l never saw a grander struc-
ture above ground Three tiers of gal
leries seemed to stand out before us; we
seemed to be In the orchestra circle, with
the pit at our feet. Where the stage
should have been dark pail seemed to
| obscure the scene. It looked terribly
grand. We could not help recalling
those powerful and beautiful lines of Poe
on 'eFhe Worm" "-"Once upon a gala
night" etc. Moving around our so
called theatre, we selected different po-
sition, and, holding our catldles near each
other, scene of unparalleled brilliancy
seemed to burst upon it. From every
corner and crevice of this chamber
.parkled the hues of the rainbow
masses of diamonds, clusters of rubies,
emeralds, saphires, dazzled our eyes,
| while blue and buff colonnades, .moulds
of silver and bronze, huge cloisters. of
icicles, some twenty feet in length, ap-
peared, and again the front of an organ
nearly as large as the great organ at
the Centennial. Striking the slabs with
my cane the most melodious sounds
came from them and echoed and re-
echoed through the hundreds of small
chambers contained in the cave"
The next find is Of more human in
terest. The writer describes it:
Leaving the chamber we walked
through brilliant corridor and found
ourselves in room with low ceiling
and less brilliant than some others, and
here, somewhat to our horror, and great
ly to our surprise, our candles flashed
upon the perfect petrified skeleton of a
man in kneeling posture, with his head
thrown back as if he had died in agony
and in prayer. Several medical gentle
men have examined it and have come to
the conclusion that it must have been
| there for centuries. That it is the skel-
eton of man there is no doubt; it is
perfectly formed throughout, the knees
have grown to the rock in the foor."
We have no doubt ourselves that this
is the Old Line Wing who has been so
long missing in the South.
Leaving the skeleton and crossing in
a boat lake, the explorers came to
| Giants Hall.
'Here we disembarked, and walking
through long corridor, found ourselves
in probably the most immense chamber
in the world. The proprietors have en-
deavored to measure it in rough way,
and find it covers an area Of at least i
acres, but this may be low estimate.
| We renewed our candles and walked
through it for several hours, and yet did
not see the half of it. From this
chamber, as far as discovered, there ale
dozen outlets at least, leading in as
many different directions. j will not
| attempt description of it In this letter,
as it would take up too much of your
valuable space / will only say in mag
nifcance it far surpasses any of the
rooms I have described Where the ex-
plorations will end it is hard to tell, as