106 THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 



The walls and ceiling are incrusted with crystals 

 of gypsum and carbonate of lime, of great bril- 

 liancy and indescribable beauty. The floor is 

 covered with white crystals of limestone, and is 

 unobstructed by fallen rock. In point of beauty 

 there is no avenue supenor to this. 



Lucy's Dome is reached by passing through 

 Rhoda's Arcade. It is about sixty feet in its 

 greatest diameter, and over three hundred in 

 height, being the highest dome in the Cave. 

 The sides appear to be composed of immense 

 curtains, extending from the ceiling to the 

 floor. 



We next reach The Pass of El Ghor, which 

 resembles Silliman's Avenue, but the clifis com- 

 posing its walls present a more wild and rugged 

 appearance. It is about two miles in length. 



Of this Pass, Bayard Taylor remarks that he 

 supposes it was named by some traveler who 

 had been in Arabia Petrgea, and adds that the 

 name is a pleonasm, as el ghor signifies a 

 narrow, difficult pass between rocks. 



Mr. Taylor regarded the Pass of El Ghor as 

 by far the most picturesque avenue in the Cave. 

 He continues : " It is a narrow, lofty passage 

 meandering through the heart of a mass of hor- 

 izontal strata of limestone, the broken edges of 



