CHAPTER XXXI 



LECTURING TOUR IN AMERICA — WASHINGTON TO 

 SAN FRANCISCO 



I HAD two lecture engagements at Cincinnati, and had also 

 an invitation to visit Mr. W. H. Edwards, the lepidopterist, 

 whose book induced Bates and myself to go to Para, and 

 who resided at Coalburg, in West Virginia. I was also very- 

 anxious to see a new cavern which had been discovered about 

 ten years before, and which was said to be far superior to the 

 Mammoth Cave in the variety and beauty of its stalagmitic 

 formations, though not so extensive. I therefore took a 

 rather circuitous route in order to carry out this programme. 

 Leaving Washington April 6 at 3 p.m., I reached 

 Harper's Ferry about 5.30, through a fairly cultivated 

 country, a few fields green with young wheat and a few 

 damp meadows with grass, but otherwise very wintry looking. 

 Changing to a branch line up the Shenandoah Valley, I 

 passed through a picturesque country like the less moun- 

 tainous parts of Wales, but mostly uncultivated, and reached 

 Luray station about 9 p.m. There was a rather rough hotel 

 here, where I had supper and bed, and the next morning 

 after breakfast a waggon took myself and a few other visitors 

 to the cavern about a mile away, for seeing which we paid 

 a dollar each, and it was very well worth it. We walked 

 through the best parts (which are lit up with electric lights) 

 for about two hours, through a variety of passages, galleries, 

 and halls, some reaching a hundred feet high, some having 

 streams or pools of water, and some chasms of unknown 

 depth, like most caves in the limestone. But everywhere 



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