Show lp I t. t tira a 1 W 1 By JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN NOLL LE SAM has set aside another playground for his ills nieces and nephew nephews or rather ruther has made them the gift of a marvelous elous great greut cavern which seems p likely to prove pro as great a natural wonder as Crater Lake or the Grand Orand Can- Can yon 00 The magic of at President dent proclamation has hus changed Bat Dat Cave Into Carlsbad 1 National National Na Na- a- a monument To be he sure the national park system tem tent has bus not lacked lucked caves of the first class There Is la the Wind Cave National National National Na Na- park In South Dakota this Is abig a abig abig big jest cavern cavern Just how big nobody knows und knows und handsomely decorated There Is a smaller cave e of delicate beauty In Sequoia National park The Lewis Lewis and Clark Cavern In Montana and the Shoshone Cavern In lu Wyoming ore are national l monuments hut But Cave e seems to be In a class by hy Itself In extent size e of humbers hum bers and richness of ornamentation For example there Is la one chamber of which the length Is somewhere he- he tween tween half hulf a u mile and a mile Its width In places runs to COO feet Its lis ceiling Is of If unknown height few visitors ore are cautious about estl- estl mating dl distances they fear the short hort and uI ugly word Even a hard boiled veteran geologist like Dr Willis T. T 1 Lee LeI of the United States geological survey sur prefers to talk tolk In glittering generali generall ties tips He lie says sas officially lally 1 know of ot no limestone cavern ern whose chambers approach In size alze those of ot the Carlsbad Cave an and 1 the Internal decorations rival In variety beauty tad nd magnitude those of any cave eave heretofore here described The chambers are phenomenal In size Ilze and Ind the deposits deposit of ot travertine so voluminous and varied In form as I to be of ot unusual scientific as a well AS scenic Interest I am convinced con vinced that In many respects respect It sure HUT HUT- passes II ot of Ita heretofore kind known In America Carlsbad bud Cave e Is about thirty miles southeast of C Carlsbad N. N M. M the nearest nearest near near- est town und railroad point und and about ten miles from the Texas line The cave cuve Is In the tte eastern foothills of tit the The The entrance Is on n a natural bench on a 0 bare bure mountain mountain moun moun- tain slope about 1000 feet above e the road rond In the valley The cavern un 11 was us discovered In 1001 by hy J J. J I L L. White and mJe Bige Long They called It lint Hut Cove Cave because ls It Is the home of Innumerable hats bats which fly 11 out ant at ot evening e and return In the Ihl morn flora Ins lag through n hole feet feel across s and feet deep dep where here the Ihl roof of ot n a chamber has hns fallen fullen In For several Rl years e the main concern was to take takeout takeout take takeout out bat droppings for fertilizer h which industry Is still going on The Carlsbad chamber of commerce e Is keen on the Idea of exploiting the cavern It Ii talks talk of a small electric plant for lighting the tapping of ot a chamber by a horizontal shaft shutt for tor fora torII a u new entrance the cutting of steps and the fixing axing of ot guide ropes All lire are needed at this writing a n trip into the cavern even en with un an experienced guide guidI Is for the bodied und and levelheaded levelheaded level level- headed only The cavern cannot very verl well be described described de de- scribed at nt present There are ore sev- sev eal nl reasons Only a small portion of It has been explored Measurements are guesswork and the imagination jets gets n 11 chamber so 80 large that I Ii n powerful flashlight reveals n neither shies hies nor roof root There are ore no fixed names mimes for the chambers and rooms s. The only only name that seems to find general gen gln erdl eral favor Is that of Dig Big Room loom for forthe forthe forthe the largest chamber so fur far found Air Mr White Is quoted as saying the Big Dig Room Is approximately f feet et long und and GOO COO feet wl wide e The physical and chemical action which has hns brought about 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 tie- tie posits It In the form of stalactites pendent roof formations and stalagmites mites tour floor formations The two unite to form pillars Stalactite lire are clIl cubed called ed s Is up- up plied pUNI to formations caused II by water flowing through n a wall null These formations are almost always white and the material may h he railed tilted travertine or onyx There Is apparently apparently no limit to the arlel variety of form The Twin ln Domes In the m Big nig Room nr are probably feet fret high nn a feet reI I across the base They rise from froma fromn n a great dark greet mound The Till Crows Nest I t Is u 11 chamber so thickly set It with slender stalactites anti and stalagmites mites that one could rould not puss pass through destroying hundreds of the tile delicate formations Photographs of the Carlsbad rave Cave to date ore are unsatisfactory lIr for fur obvious reasons Of Ih the two here hErp reproduced the lower gives n suggestion of ot some sinie of the fantastic stalagmite formation In a n chamber coiled called h by some the thO City of the Rods Gild This chamber Is ron com comparatively par bialy small and the has hn caught a 0 suggestion of or one ewe of the Ihl walls willi In the background ThE Tho upper picture shuns shows sonic spie PIP of the formations In the Big Illg Room term-part term of n group of stalagmites II UK its the Totem Poles Pities Some lIme of tin tin-so only u 11 few feet In diameter rise to n height of fifty feet flet or III more lirE In the back background ground Is the Stygian blackness of lit great gnat chamber There l Is IR a n e of the Ihl stalactites which nt ot this sprit spot ha nL In thousands thousand some same so slender that they break brenk at u II lIlu h rod th icier I si Ni massive that It Is hI hard to understand II how they cling to III the ceiling Drip Dripstone stone and formal formations Ions nt III the right of ot the photograph photograph photograph pho pho- suggest larrest draperies of ot many manyk k kin 1 n d s- s 8 fringed shawls bawls lace luce curtains cur cur- sta state stage e curtains cur cur- twins heavy beavy tapestries tapes topes tries canopies Putting l' together several ev ml stories of trips Into the cay cavera era ID a a sample lample exploration exploration exploration ex ex- with a II guld Is I. something like this The visitors visitor are lowered two by two In a 1 t guano tano bucket to the bottom bottom bot bot- tom liO feet be be- low The TIe bats bat live lire to the east the scenic chambers He lie to the west The passageway IB is down hill hili and rough tough with fallen debris said to be several hundred feet deep halt Half amite a amile amile mile mite from the Sam stab 4 Monument Ii Preserve s i f Natural Wonder e f Wh r a at A 7 i 3 a a nt t s ea t t x r rI rt t I shaft shutt the visitors pass under the n natu natural tu ral rat entrance here the national monument moan moan- ment meat begins For the first mile the passage which always descends varies greatly In width sometimes the walls are not more titan than feet apart Often Otten there are lire large chambers on either side The Thu decorations are noteworthy but aro mediocre compared with those farther falther far fal ther tier on Then a pit about bout ICO feet deep delp yawns clear across across the passage The way then leads through u a of large lorje chambers of which the ceilings ceil cel ings lire are of unknown height Under trod font there is to a tangle of enormous limestone blocks Considerably farther on at a n JOO fe feet t below the surface nt at the en entrance entrance trance trume three great chambers open odthe 00 od the main hall hail The first has not beer been measured It In Is larger than thun the sec see anti ond which Is three times the size of ol I Ithe the third which Is ICO b by feet I The he stalactites hang In thousands thousand and andIn andin In Ier every Imaginable shape some nom reaching to the floor the stalagmite are not so numerous Half f an nn hour of hard traveling brings the visitors to the Big nig lg Room which Is as liS remarkable able for Its decora as us for Its size At the fa farther rUler end of the Rig nig I Room the floor ops d-ops abruptly for about feet feel Int Inn Inch a abole ahole ahole hole bole about 00 feet flet across This Is I the off oft place no man han hM ex explored farther further Its are suggested Iu by hy a n small limn II hole hull In the floor of the nig Into which Mr Sir Whit w was once lowered OO 00 feet Me lie found lound chambers and ond hallways lIs w without end and a stream of clear ellar water venter I Hitherto Mammoth Cave e In Kentucky Ken hUll has bl been n known the fluky tucky ns as largest cave 11 In the world Fur For that reason anon there I U is a u bill hill In tits thU congress n to mike It a II national park Its passages anti ami chamber are orl sold said to 10 extend for tar nine miles Cave r Is apparently mure extensive Apparently It Is also l much more richly ornamented Clr Certainly tome of Its 1111 are much larger with higher ceilings u Nature hUll hue taken plenty of time to 10 tia du a u and job jai In Cave e I e tI the lle age uge of smile of the Ihl larger formations ns at ut more than jeum eurs |