San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1879-02-22
Caluo,9.ia's Last Marvel.

moth cave in the dividing ridge be-
tween the South Branch and main
Stanislaus rivers, two miles above the
junction, and one mile northerly from
Pine Log, at an elevation of about one
thousand eight hundred feet above the
river. The discovery was made under
the following very peculiar circumstan-
ces, in which an insignificant squirrel
figures very conspicuously. On the LIST
of December, 1878, Gardner says he
was engaged in working his placer
claim, which is distant three hundred
feet from the entrance of the cave. A
squirrel perched itself upon tree near
by and commenced to chatter and spit
acorn shucks at him. This he consid-
cred challenge to fight it out on that
line. So he repaired to his cabin, arm
cd himself with double-barreled shot
gun, marched out and faced his diminu-
tive antagonist. The fight opened with
a spirited skirmish of both parties, and
ended after Gardner had fired seven
rounds at bis squirrelship-the seventh
! just as his little tormentor was disap-
pearing in the dark recesses Of Grew.
ice in the ledge above his claim. He
pursued it to its retreat, and then COM
menced searching in the crevice to dis
cover, if possible, the hiding-place Of
his vanquished foe, but failed. The
search, however, resulted in the discov-
cry of the greatest natural wonder in
the county, and, perhaps, in the state,
as future developments in that direction
may prove, in its class. So closes the
history of its discovery.
1t is adorned with decorations of daz-
zling beauty, unsurpassed in character
on the Pacific slope. The entrance to
the cave is situated at the base of bluff,
and eighty feet above the gulch, and ac-
cess is had through crevice in the
ledge, three feet in width by six feet in
length Descending by ladder ten feet,
you reach the floor of an inclined arch
way dipping at an angle of thirty-fvo
degrees, from twenty to thirty feet in
height, by thirty feet in width. De-
scending the incline, which is one hun
dred feet in length, we reach the floor
of the grand archway, from forty to
sixty feet in height, varying in width
from twenty to thirty feet, from which
radiate scores of similar archways lead
ing to spacious chambers, with their
lofty ceilings draped with brilliant stall
actites, that glitter and sparkle in the
light of a lamp like gems of ocean waves
of which we read The floors and walls
of this subterraneous hall are entirely
coated with stalagmites, pure crystali-
zation. We can best describe this crys-
tai formation in this wise: For instance,
it resembles in makeup, and appears to
the vision, like sheet of snow lying
loosely in large flakes on pane Of glass;
We visited, under the guidance of the
discoverer, many large chambers, of
which the grandeur and brilliancy baf-
fie description. Our rambles through
the subterraneous archways were con-
tinued for four hours To give the
most minute details of what we wit
messed during our rambles in the cave
would fill every page of the Tuolumne
Independent. "The Bridal Chamber"
is sixty feet in length, twenty feet in
width, with slightly arched ceiling ten
to fifteen feet; floor and walls crystal
lied; from the ceiling depend hundreds
Of stalactites from one to six feet in
length. This chamber far surpasses
the wondrous beauties of the "Cave
City" of Calaveras county. SO says r.
Bostwick, who, in 1859, visited that
cave. "The Crystal Palace" though
not so spacious as the first mentioned
room, is equally as attractive, its crys-
tai formations are Of rare beauty.
Explorations made of the cave extend
over an area of one-half mile. In no
direction already explored has there
been found any terminating point to
the cavern. Gardner says he will con-
tinue to explore till every recess of the
cave is discovered and its extent known.
Through some system of experimental
surveys of the surface, he determined