616 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



been probed to depth of twenty-five feet and no bottom reached. Guano is also 

 found in stretches on the sides of the cuneiform pile to a height of fifty feet ; and 

 further up, mixed with stone and dirt, clear to the top. 



Where the foot of the cone is farthest from the wall of the cave, is a huge 

 stalagmite, about fifty feet high, translucent, white and hollow. At its base is 

 an open arch, through which one can climb and ascend on the inside to a height 

 of about twenty-five feet, when one is stopped by a spring of very clear water. 

 This water streams down to a basin hollowed in the bottom of the stalagmite. 



Between the stalagmite and the side of the cone is a gigantic block of white 

 onyx, about oblong at the base and nearly circular at the top. It tapers upwards 

 to a height of fifty feet. The width of front and back at the base is forty feet, 

 the thickness thirty feet. At the top, where the shape is circular or almost so, 

 it is eight feet across. Projecting rocks can be used as an irregular stairway for 

 ascending to the top. About half way up is an opening. The block is hollow 

 and divided in cells, through which one can wind one's way. A light carried 

 inside is dimly perceptible outside, through considerable thickness, the onyx 

 being sufficiently translucent for an outsider to follow with the eye the course of 

 the person inside carrying the light. The outside is decorated by water forma- 

 tions in the shape of columns and draperies ; and on the stone appear like rude 

 carvings in relief of human faces. This block has been named the "Great 

 White Throne." 



From the arched wall of the cave, behind the " Great White Throne," hang 

 down over i,ooo stalactites, varying in length from a few inches to twenty feet 

 and in color, crystalline, white, yellow, and red; here and there interlacing and 

 forming what looks like delicate net-work. 



From the top of the roof, where it begins to be vaulted, yellowish stalactites 

 of various sizes hang down in groups. Touched for a moment by the rays of the 

 noon sun, the tips glisten beautifully. 



Fifteen passages lead from the cave in various directions, farther into the 

 mountain. Their walls, like those of the cave, are of marble, flint, onyx, and 

 granite, in layers. To any one making the round of the cave, starting from where 

 the wall presents the widest space without any opening, and moving with the 

 wall on the right hand, the rooms present themselves in the following order: 



I. The largest, thirty feet wide and fifteen feet high, divided into two unequal 

 parts by a pillar, is the Emery Avenue, after Capt. J, B. Emery, postmaster at 

 Lamar, Mo., the president of the company which owns the cave. This passage 

 is only about ten feet long and leads into a room 250 feet long, thirty feet wide 

 and from ten to twenty feet high, the floor slanting and saddle-shaped near the 

 middle. This room is called the Mother Hubbard Room, by reason of a rock in 

 the shape of an old woman with cape and hood, bending from a stool over a grate, 

 near what seems to be a cupboard in the wall. This room ends in a mass of 

 rock piled up irregularly. Same kind of rock as in the cave, and floor thickly 

 covered with guano. In this pile of rock is a narrow passage through which one 

 has to creep. It is thirty feet long and ends in a room about twenty feet wide. 



