WASHINGTON TO SAN FRANCISCO 137 



times they hang down like gigantic icicles, and one of these is 

 over sixty feet long, the dripping apex being only a few inches 

 from the floor. In some places the stalactites resemble cas- 

 cades, in others organs, and several are like statues, and have 

 received appropriate names. Many of them are most cu- 

 riously ribbed ; others, again, have branches growing out of 

 them at right angles a few inches long — a most puzzling 

 phenomenon. There is a Moorish tent, in which fine white 

 drapery hangs in front of a cave, a ball-room beautifully or- 

 namented with snow-white stalactites, curtains, etc. Some of 

 these, when struck, give out musical notes, and a tune can be 

 played on them. A photograph of the Moorish tent and the 

 curious pillars near it is here reproduced. The curtain is 

 like alabaster, and when a lamp is held behind it, the effect 

 is most beautiful. In many places there are stalagmitic floors, 

 beneath which is clay filled with bones of bats, etc., and at 

 one spot human bones are embedded in the floor under a 

 chasm opening above. The print of an Indian mocassin is 

 also shown petrified by the stalagmite. Rats and mice are 

 found with very large eyes ; and there are some blind insects 

 and centipedes, as in the Mammoth Cave. Several miles of 

 caverns and passsages have already been explored, but other 

 wonders may still be hidden in its deeper recesses. The only 

 caves in the world which appear, from the descriptions to 

 surpass those of Luray are the Jenolan caves in New South 

 Wales. The latter have all the curious and elegant forms of 

 stalactites found at Luray, and in addition others of beautiful 

 colours, such as salmon, pink, blue, yellow, and various tints 

 of green, a peculiarity, so far as I am aware, found nowhere 

 else. 



Returning to the station I went on to Waynesboro' Junction, 

 where I dined, and had to wait two or three hours for the 

 train on at 5 p. m. I took a walk on a wooded hill close by, 

 but the only flower I could find was the little Epigcea repens, 

 the only indication of spring. The appearance of the woods 

 was no more advanced than with us in February; yet it was 

 in the latitude of Lisbon! I reached Clifton Forge, where I 

 had to stay the night, at 8 p. m., and found the hotel full, and 



