130 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



children playing about a sink-hole in September of 

 that year, noted an opening which had been formed 

 near its bottom by a recent falling of earth and rock, 

 and venturing in, found the room now known as 

 " Grand Entrance Hall." Afraid to go farther, they 

 made known their discovery to other persons, and in 

 a few weeks the entire cave had been explored. A 

 building was soon afterward erected above the mouth, 

 and stairways built, so that entrance into the cavern 

 could be easily and safely made. 



Thousands of visitors have since passed through 

 this cave, and no one who is at all in sympathy with 

 nature can come forth from its corridors and passages 

 without feeling fully repaid for his peep into one of 

 her under-ground chemical workshops. There, the 

 only materials necessary are water and limestone. 

 Given these, and time unlimited, the varied character 

 and wonderful beauty of the products possible can 

 only be realized by those who have spent a few hours 

 in a cavern like Marengo. 



Descending the stairways, after having been pro- 

 vided with a lantern and guide, the visitor finds himself 

 fifty feet below the surface in the large vestibule known 

 as the Grand Entrance Hall. This is a room fifty 

 feet w r ide and twenty to thirty feet in height, the floor 

 of dry earth, and with two passages diverging, one 

 ascending to the right and leading through the Short 

 Route and Crystal Palace, the other descending to the 

 left and leading through the Long Route. 



Taking first the latter, we found the main passage 

 to be 12 feet high and about 20 feet wide. Scattered 

 at intervals along its walls and roof were many stalac- 



