Evening star., 1925-05-31
B|LL|ON-YEAR-OLD
CORAL DISCOVERED
Explorers Make Rare Finds
in Depths of Endless
Caverns of Virginia.
BY III. h. PHILIPS.


ENDLESS CAVERNS, Va, May
30.-Five hundred million years or
more ago, cons before the appearance
on this earth of reptiles or even fishes,
creatures that resembled queer looking
plants more than marine animals
crawled over the sandy floor of a great
inland sea that once covered what is
now the Shenandoah Valley. Late
yesterday some of their fossil remains
were found hidden away in hitherto
unexplored passages of the Endless
Caverns, just where they had been
left stranded when the waters of that
prehistoric ocean seeped back into the
Atlantic early in the Cambrian period.
Together with fossil coral beds at
tached to the Shiny walls of a great
underground river where the foot of
man has never before been known to
tread they were discovered in rich
abundance by the expedition OF sci
entists from the American. Museum or
Natural History and the Explorers
Club of America. which succeeded dur.
ing the past week in following the tun-
neis OF these ancient caves almost a
mile further back into the Massanut-
ten Mountains. These little animals
are known to the scientific world as
bryzoa They belong to the age of in
vertebrates and the time during
which they flourished has been def
nitely placed four-fifths of the span
back through the period of geological
evolution, antedating the Paleozoic
and representing one of the earliest
known forms of life. This. the sci
entists said, would make their age
nr
more.
Even Older Fossils Found.
Not far away in the quarry from
which were taken the rock used IN
building here members of the ex-
pedition also found remains believed
to be those of marine creatures even
older than the bryzoa. They have
every appearance, according to DR..
Chester A Reeds of the American
Museum of Natural History and
leader of the expedition, of belonging
to the extinct species trilobites and
graptolites, but until more careful eX-
aminations can be made this cannot
be determined definitely. In appear
ance the bryzoa do not look unlike
the coral near which they were found
They were once thought to have been
a species of mollusks and In imita-
ton of mollusks attached themselves
to rocks or patches of sand, for all
the world like plants. The trilobites
and graptolites. if such they really
are, appear to the layman to be moth
ing more than so many blades OF
weather-beaten grass. The latter two
species were completely encased In
hard limestone rocks.
ACCOMMODATING DIR. Reeds on the ex-
pIoration of the Endless Caverns We're
Henry Collins Walsh, founder of the
Explorers Club; f. J. Foyles of the
American Museum of Natural His
tory, Horace d. Ashton and Merle
I4ayoy, both members OF the EX-
ployers' Club.
About II other scientists who came
from many parts of the country COM
nIeted the party. The explorations
were begun last Monday and will end
early tomorrow morning.
Find River at Pit Bottom.
The first trip was begun near the
chamber known as King Solomon's s
TEMPLE, Visitors to the caverns will
recall being shown precipitate drop
into darkness, about 100 feet in
depth. BY means of stout ropes the
explorers let themselves down into
the hitherto unvisited passage. Each
carried a torch and wore hip boots
and as nearly waterproof clothing as
il was possible to obtain.
The explorers found themselves
knee deep in a comparatively wide
underground river Immediately upon
touching bottom. The tunnel through
which it flowed was so low in many
places that they were obliged to
crawl most of the 900 yards they
travelled, when they finally came to
a spot where the lost river reached
a depth up to the shoulders Of the
leader. At the same point the roof
of the tunnel dipped almost down to
the surface of the water and the
party was obliged to turn back.
The next point of attack was at
the Diamond Lake, the farthest
point back in the caverns yet opened
to the public. At first the explorers,
securely tied to one another by ropes,
had to crawl on their stomachs. Soon,
however, they came upon either the
same lost river that stopped them on
their first excursion or an entirely
new one. This time, however. they
started down stream and progressed
fContfnled an Pa "a q Column IL