Show right of the photograph a U g g 0 s t ta r P draperies of ninn kinds k I 1 n d s f r ed r shawls laco lace cur t loins stage cur bains heavy tapes gas d tries arloa cano canopies pies putting together obile 4 several stories of 0 atre TS it into tile the caa ern cm n exploration c ll with it elildo la Is something like this tto tile visitors are nr I 1 lowered two by b two in a guano bucket to tho bot bol A coill aiu toot foet be b low the bats live alv it to the east tile til mess r scenic chambers lye lie ile to the west aoa need tile passageway awn ans Is down hill and nn ayr ab rough ough with fallen JA debris sali to bo I 1 R several hundred v feet deep n e r mile fro from in the th and e a exem k api upi rid aam va t I 1 a iona t I 1 31 IVA t ament to prea dyve KID ural wonder P 4 f n W 47 U IS 10 3 N DICKINSON SHERMAN SAM bus baa set aside another playground for ills his nieces and nephews or rattier rather has made them tile tho gift of a marvelous great cavern which seems likely to prove as great a natural wonder as crater lake or the grand canyon the magleon magic of proclamation has r bat at cave into carlsbad no na lonu onu ment t sure the national park j jaiT as not lacked caves of the first is here la is the wind cave nain wa stark U ark in south dakota this Is a lk rn just how big nobody jand an handsomely decorated a a smaller cave of delicate n sequoia national park the hd d dark clark cavern in montana shoshone Sho ahone cavern in wyoming onal nal monuments cave seems to bo be in a itself lt self in extent size of cham d richness of ornamentation aar aple pie there Is one chamber of itile aie to length Is somewhere behalf W alf a mile and a mile its F places runs rung to OW feet its 9 la a of unknown height the tors are cautious about estl esti I 1 instances they tear fear the short word even a hard boiled eo logist like dr willis T lee f cited tatted states geological survey to 0 talk in glittering gie generall rail 14 says officially 4 t J 1 ivr w ot of no limestone cavern r ili ambers approach in size those cave and the internal 0 edons ana rival in variety beauty etude those of any cave cave here ot ascribed scribed bed the chambers are ara ho al in size and the deposits tina ine so 80 voluminous and varied as v to be ba of unusual scientific 0 M scenic interest I 1 am con lat at in many respects it sur of its kind heretofore a america id cave la Is about thirty miles of carlsbad N X M the near bad d railroad point point andi and about bout M alfrom from the texas line the IV Jt the heastern eastern foothills of the ua S mountains the eni entrance rance kural tural bench on a bare moun tt 1 about 1000 feet above the md valley 4 sern S ern was discovered in 1901 bite halte and bige long they 10 sat at cave because it Is tho the il numerable bats which fly a t a ling ing and return in the morn le ti a hole feet across and ro deep beep where the roof of a M lias as fallen in for several ari ri f main concern 7 was to take 1 tb coppings for fertilizer which aunt astill still going on pad bad ch timber of com commerce morce I 1 the idea of exploiting the 11 y talks talk of a small hydro electric plant for lighting the tapping of a chamber by a horizontal shaft for foi a new entrance the cutting of stops steps and the fixing of guide ropes all art are needed at this writing it a trip into the th cavern even with an experienced guide la Is for tho the able bodied and levelheaded only the cavern cannot very well be described at present there are several reasons only a small port portion IOU ol of it has been explored measurements are guesswork and the tha imagination gets active in a chamber so BO large that a powerful flashlight reveals neither sides nor roof there are no fixed names for the chambers and rooms the only name that tha seems to find general favor Is that of big room for the largest chamber so far found mr air valte Is quoted as saying the big room Is approximately feet long and feet wide the physical and chemical action which has brought about tills this cavern and its decorations may be thus briefly described the mountain Is composed of limestone which consists chiefly of calcium carbonate water penetrating the limestone dissolves the calcium carbonate carries it along and deposits it in the form of stalactites pendent roof formations and mites floor formations the thai two unite to form pillars stalactites are called drip stones Flow stones Is applied to formations caused by water flowing through a wall these formations are almost elways white an and d the material may be called travertine or onyx there Is apparently no limit to the variety of form tho the twin domes in the big room tire are probably feet high and feet across the base they rise from n great dark green mound the crows nest Is a chamber so thickly set with slender stalactites and mites that one could not pass through without destroying hundreds of the delicate formations photographs of tho the carlsbad cove cave to date are unsatisfactory for obvious reasons of the two here reproduced the lower gives a suggestion of some of the fantastic stalagmite formations in a chamber called by some the city of the gods this chamber to Is comparatively ively small and the comer camera a has baa caught aught a one of the walls walla in the background the upper picture shows some of the formations in tho the big room part of a group of stalagmites mites known as the totem poles some of these ont only y e few feet in diameter rise to a height of fifty feet or more in the background Is the stygian blackness of this treat great chamber there to Is a glimpse of the he stalactites which at this spot hang bang in thousands some so go blender that they hey break at a touch and others so BO massive that itle it Is hard to understand how they cling to the belling cel ling drip stone itono and formations at the U 1 16 AX shaft the visitors vass pass under the natural entrance here the national bonu ment begins for the first mile the passage which always descends varies greatly in width sometimes tho the walls are not more than feet apart often there are large chan chambers ibers on either cither side aide the decorations are noteworthy but are mediocre compared with those farther on then a pit about feet deep yawns clear across the passage the way then leads through a 0 succession of largo large chambers of which the ceilings are of unknown height under foot there Is a tangle of enormous limestone blocks considerably farther on at a point feet below the surface nt at the entrance three great chambers open off the main hall tho the first has not been measured it Is larger than the second which ts Is three times the size of tho the third which Is by feet the stalactites hang bang in thousands and in every imaginable shape some reaching to the floor the stalagmites mites are not so numerous half an hour of hard traveling brings the visit visitors 0 rs to the big room which Is as rem remarkable for its decorations as for its size at the farther end of the big biff room the floor drops abruptly for about feet into a hole bole about feet across this ebli la Is the jumping off place no man has explored farther its possibilities are suggested by a small hole bole in the floor of tile the big room into which mr white was once lowered feet he found chambers and hallways seemingly without end and a stream of clear water hitherto Al mammoth ammoth cave in ken tucky has been known as the largest cave in the world for that reason there Is a bill in this congress to make it IL a national park its ita passages and chambers are said to extend for nine miles carlsbad cave Is apparently more extensive apparently it ls Is also algo much more richly ornamented certainly some of its chambers are rauch much larger with higher ceilings nature has taken cletty of time I 1 imeta tc do a good job in carlsbad Carl bad cave geologists estimate the age of some of the larger formations at more than rj years |