We would enter one and then, as we would pass out the other side, seem to enter another.
Many times we stopped in bewilderment of the beauty that lay before us. The fellows in the party often kidded about the trip and were pretty much in gay spirits, but as they would enter these magnificent rooms which man had never seen before, they became very quiet, letting their eyes soak in every detail that the light of our lanterns brought out.
We all seemed humble amid God's handiwork, and I noticed many of the roughest men in the party became suddenly reverent as though they might be entering some great cathedral.
I never knew exactly how the other men felt about all this strange exhibition of beauty, but I could see it had some effect upon their lives. A rough bunch of men usually don't say much about this sort of thing.
As for me, I wondered if anyone on the outside would believe our stories when we told them what we were seeing. Actually, I felt it was a big dream, and that I would soon wake up. I had heard of caves before, but I had never heard of anything this large or filled with as much beauty.
All of us felt that each turn would be the end and we would be able to terminate our trip and return. But each time we would discover a deep shadow which would turn out to be another tunnel or entrance to another large cavity or room, often more colorful and appealing than the one we were leaving.
At times there would appear to be no further trail. The boys would flash their lanterns around and find an outlet, sometimes so high above us that we couldn't reach it without a ladder. Then we would find another on our own level and we would be on our way again, leaving a world of beauty for another fully its equal.
In one place we came upon what looked like an iceberg, but of course it was a rock formation. In another we came upon a green pond of water.
Everywhere we saw stalactites formed through countless years of the dripping of water, each drop leaving behind its minute portion of calcium or other chemical composition which eventually forms the pendant. The fellows constantly referred to them as icicles, since they resembled them so exactly.
Underneath many of the biggest ones were the stalagmites, the "rising statues" formed by the drips from their counterpart above. Every one, it seemed, had a style and shape all its own.