Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

340 CAMPING AND WOODCRAFTSouthern Indiana has scores of caves that containe3^eless fish and crustaceans, beds of niter, epsomsalts, great deposits of alabaster, and Indian relics.In the Wyandot Cave is a domed chamber i,ooofeet in circumference and 185 feet high, from thefloor of which rises a pyramid to within 50 feet ofthe roof. In another vast hall is a symmetrical pillar40 feet high and 75 feet in periphery, risingfrom a base that is 300 feet around, the whole massbeing solid, homogeneous alabaster as white as snow.The finest cavern district in the world is aboutthe head waters of the Green River, in Kentucky.Here the limestones have a depth of several hundredfeet, and hence are peculiarly favorable for theformation of stupendous caverns. Edm.onstonCounty by itself has some five hundred caves, oneof which, the Mammoth Cave, isWith-certainly the largestthat has yet been discovered on the globe.in a section of about ten square miles, and a thicknessof 300 feet, where this gigantic cavern iscentered, there are probably more than 200 milesof galleries large enough to permit, the passageof a man. The ''Long Route" for visitors in theMammoth Cave, which is mostly quite smooth andeasy, takes eight or nine hours of steady walkingat an average pace of two miles an hour. One ofthe domes is 300 feet high. The Mammoth Domeis about 400 feet in length, 150 feet in width, andfrom 80 to 250 feet high, according to position.The cave district of the Shenandoah Valley, inVirginia, differs from those hitherto mentioned inthat the rock, instead of lying in horizontal strata,is folded and uptilted. This peculiarity limits theVirginia caverns to moderate dimensions, but affordsextraordinary bases for the growth of alabaster"cascades" and other fantastic formations ofdripstone. Here are the far-famed Caves of Luray,which contain the most weird and beautiful grottoesin the known world.How Caves are Formed.—No one shouldtry