458 



LURAY CAVERN, PAGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA. 



Passing onward the visitor stops for a few moments to admire what 

 seems to be the retreating form of a lady in full party toilet. Her head 

 is just hid by the jamb of the distant doorway; but rounded shoulders, 

 delicate arms, shapely waist, and long, flowing skirt and train, profusely 

 ornamented, all are there. The proprietors have named this the Ladies' 

 Toilet, but some of the Smithsonian party suggested the title " Cinderella 

 leaving the Ball." The path leads hence across Pluto's Chasm, by the 

 Bridge of Sighs, to a rift bearing the grim title of Skeleton Gulch. 



The Grand Gulch and Geyser. 



Here, 110 feet below the mouth of the Cliasm, in the bottom of a narrow 

 trench, are the bones of what appears to have been a human being. The 

 vandalism of former visitors made the proprietor rather shy of the ex- 

 ploring party; but as far as could be made out a man or woman lost in 

 the cave had wandered to the edge of Pluto's Chasm, and, fiilling over, 

 had here become entombed. Most of the bones are concealed by the 

 tufaceous floor which has formed over them, but protruding through 

 and above this are to be seen the head of a femur with an inch or two 

 of the vertebral column, two or three small pointed projections resem- 

 bling teeth, and a portion of a third bone undetermined. It was abso- 

 lutely impossible to gain any information concerning these bones which 

 would be of scientific value. 



The ground passed over is only one-fourth of the cave accessible, with 

 but little trouble, to visitors ; and yet the fleeting hours invite return and 

 compel a speedy retreat. 



