TEN INDIANA CAVES. 135 



fashion, " Grant's Army" and " Coxey's Army" being 

 the names given to two of the largest assemblages. 

 The floor of Washington Avenue is dry and for the 

 most part* composed of earth, with here and there a 

 slab of fallen rock. Near the fork it descends for 

 about fifteen feet and we enter once more the main 

 passage, already described, and make our way along 

 it to the "Cut Oft'" leading to Crystal Palace, passing 

 on our left the "Lover's Retreat," a winding cleft 

 which extends about seventy-five feet back into the 

 solid limestone. 



The Crystal Palace is the crowning glory of Ma- 

 rengo Cave. It is a small alcove or side room, ninety 

 feet long, fifteen feet wide and about twenty-five feet 

 in height. At the south end is a perpendicular wall 

 along which is a drapery or vast sheet of stalactites, 

 and from a projecting shelf are many slender stalag- 

 mites, the whole so grouped as to resemble a giant 

 pipe-organ. The side walls are studded with hun- 

 dreds of small and large formations, while from the 

 roof hang, pendent, myriads of slender stalactites of 

 the clearest crystal, which reflect with sparkling bril- 

 liancy the rays of the calcium or magnesium flash 

 lights. By ascending a stairway fifteen feet, one finds 

 himself on a balcony in the very midst of these form- 

 ations and can pass back into "Crystal Palace Gal- 

 lery," a low passage, about 150 feet in length, the 

 floor of which resembles a relief map, being thrown 

 up in many places in narrow corrugations and ridges, 

 with here and there a pool of limpid water occupy- 

 ing the irregular and shallow depressions. 



Descending the stairway and passing to the left, 



