Los Angeles herald., 1907-02-24
Wonder Caves f. WOT|d1

"A strangely beautiful transformation scene"
saws a recent visitor, "is exhibited in the star
chamber, hall seventy feet wide, sixty feet
high and 500 feet long. The lofty ceiling is
coated with black gypsum, studded with thou
sands Of white spots, caused by the efhores
cence Of the sulphate Of magnesia. Our guide
asks us to sit down on log bench by the
wall, and then collecting the lamps, vanishes
behind jutting rock, whence by adroit ina
nipuations he throws shadows, fitting like
clouds across the starry vault. The effect is
extremely fine, and the illusion is complete;
IS removed, and that he looks up from a deep
valley into the real heavens. Goodnight
says Tom; i will see you again in the morn
ing With this abrupt leave-taking he plunges
Even the blackest midnight in the upper world
has from some quarter few scattered rays,
but here the gloom Is without a CLEAN. In
the absolute silence that ensues we hear the
beating of our hearts. The painful suspense
is at length broken by one of those strange
outbursts of laughter that come when least
expected; and then we Indignantly ask each
other the meaning of this sudden desertion
But while we are roundly berating the guides
treachery we see in the remote distance a faint
glmmer, like the first streak of dawn. The
light increases in volume till it tinges the tips
OF the rocks like tops of hills far away. The
horizon is bathed in rosy hues, and we are
prepared to see the sun rise, when all at once
the guide, appears, swinging his cluster of
lamps and asking us how we like the per-
formance."
AL along the great tunnel which averages
forty feet high and sixty feet wide, there are
halls and alcoves of great beauty. Sometimes
the roof is mottled like mackerel sky; some
times the lodges are whitened with drifts >oi
native Epson salts; sometimes under the slabs
of stalagmte are the ashes and embers of the
ancient fires lighted by the Indians and those
who preceded them; sometimes great masses
of fallen rock that seem to form ruined
city.
|. In some places are dangerous abysscs. The
Side Saddle Pit goes down a hundred feet, like
a quarry gaping by the pati,side. The Bottom
less Pit goes down hundred and seventyfvt
feet and more, and has to be crossed by g
bridge. In Gorin's Dome, the floor far be
low is covered with water an acre in area.
And there are many other lakes and many
rivers. all connected with Green River, a.
has been pI oven by throwing in chaff which
has always come to the surface at certain
springs outside; and when these springs ar,
submerged by the river in food the water.
rise in the cave.
On Echo River, in the cave, fleet of boat
is kept; it is in places two hundred feet wide
and is navigable for threequarters of mile
In it are caught the fish which have left of
| eyes as being of no use to them, many of tn
fish having sightless eyes or protuberances
and furnishing the necessary links with thei
relations who have been more fortunate il
life.
The echoes. from which the river takes it
name, are very fine, being distinct, prolonged
and of varying intensity. Then there ar
Roaring River and Mystic River, and man,
others Styx, of course, among them.
In distant part of the cave is the mael
strom, about which there is quite a story
1t was first explored by a boy, the son o
George d. Prentice, the poet. The guide
let him down by rope Down he sank
where man had never been before, swingin
his lamp as he went.
Half way down he swung into waterfall
Soon he was through the spray. and, lam
he stood on solid rock 100 feet down. As h
came up he stopped at niche, and, leavin
the rope, wandered, off to explore series O
galleries and halls that opened out on to it,