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, i^rofusely 

 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 Gnlcli and Geyser. 



Here, 110 feet below the mouth of the Chasm, 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, falling over, 

 had here become entombed. ]\Tost 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. 



