Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black Hills

by Luella Agnes Owen

In the Corridor can be seen one of the three old Spanish ladders found in the cave when it was rediscovered; but when and for what purpose the Spaniards used the cave there seems to be no means of finding out. It should be remembered that this part of the United States was occupied first by the Spaniards and then by the French, and is a portion of the Louisiana Purchase, a tract of 897,931 square miles, or 70,000 square miles more than the original thirteen states. The price asked and paid was $12,000,000 and the assumption of claims which citizens of this country had against the French Government for about $3,750,000 more. The French offered to make the sale on account of being thoroughly discouraged with constant troubles arising with the Indians, whom they had decided it would be impossible to persuade or compel to recognize any laws other than those established by each tribe for itself, or accepted by friendly treaty with the council and disregarded by individuals on both sides:—and the United States accepted the offer, not for any expected value in the land, but for the unrestricted navigation of the Mississippi River. Therefore Missouri was never under British rule and never changed hands by force of arms.

But to return to the Spanish ladder, it is a tall pine tree notched on the sides for steps, and the stump of a branch left or a peg inserted at considerable intervals, for hand supports to assist in raising the weight of the body.

Returning to the Auditorium, we entered a passage behind the Great White Throne and started on what might well be called the Water Route, for no dry spot is touched on the round trip; but if one goes prepared for such a journey it is well worth the effort and the mud. If the visitor is a man, the suit worn should be one he is ready to part with, or overalls; ladies receive the same advice even to the overalls, as some of the most beautiful portions of the cave, which we failed to see, can be visited only in that objectionable costume. To visit any cave comfortably a short dress is necessary and if any thing like a thorough knowledge of the ramifications is desired, the unavoidable climbing will soon prove the superior claims of a divided skirt; but if it is properly made, only the wearer need be conscious of the divide. Rubber boots and water-proof protection for the head and shoulders complete a costume that is not exactly an artistic creation, unless our ideas of art have been gathered in the school of Socrates, but it is suited to the requirements of the occasion and makes the explorations far more easy and profitable than they otherwise could be.

The passage back of the White Throne is called the Serpentine Passage, and most of it is sufficiently high for traveling in an erect position; yet there are several places that require crawling. The first stopping point is the Gulf of Doom Room, or as it is also known, the Register Room, because here visitors usually write their names in the peculiar dark red clay, which is moist but firm and cuts with a polish. This room is twenty-five feet high and fifty feet wide, and looks off into the Gulf of Doom, which seems rightly named when a rock is thrown into it and you note the lapse of time before any sound returns; and when the awful Gulf is made visible by lights thrown in, one involuntarily seeks a firmer footing and clings to a projecting rock. The height of the Gulf is ninety-five feet and the distant sound of falling water is not reassuring. The walls are not smoothly worn away, but have the rough and weird appearance of having been torn by a torrent in a narrow mountain gorge, and are stained with the dark clay.

Retracing our steps a short distance, if that style of locomotion could be called steps, we turned into Doré's Gallery, and surely that artist was in his usual working mood when he conceived this awful method of connecting the upper regions with the lower. Great bowlders have fallen down without helping to fill the black holes that received them, and into this real Inferno we proceeded to descend by narrow, ladder-like stairs provided with a light hand rail, and trembling slightly with the responsibility they assumed. If any one's courage trembled too, no notice was taken of it, and a record of exploring experiences does not necessarily include a confession of any doubts.

On all the ladders in this Gallery was a fine white fungus growth in the form of a thick, heavy mold, that the lightest touch destroyed. In caves where some care is taken to protect this mold, it attains a growth of six or more feet and assumes the forms of sea-weed.

Once down the first and longest flight of stairs, without any signs of a Doré dragon raising its huge body by heavy claws to a resting place among the rocks, awe divides more evenly with admiration; and being already well besmeared with mud, we climbed over the clay-covered bowlders and crawled through narrow holes with perfect satisfaction, enjoying each novel scene to the utmost.

Off from the Doré Gallery is a small chamber containing the Fountain of Youth, that must be seen, but the way, like that of the transgressor, is hard. Arrived at the entrance we hesitated a moment, for although getting in looked possible, the way out again seemed not so simple; but finally trusting to Providence, through the direct agency of our careful guardians, of course, we sat down on the edge of the large slippery bowlder on which we stood, and reaching out caught a projection of the wall on one side and a bowlder crag on the other, swung off and dropped into the soft mud below. This chamber proved to be a little gem; small but high, and beautifully adorned with calcite crystal. Down a wall of red onyx on one side clear water flows into a basin in the irregular, rocky floor, just behind the bowlder we had used for a hand-rest at the entrance; the perfectly transparent water in the basin appears to be only a few inches deep, but measures three feet, and is several degrees colder than the air, which in this portion of the cave is warm. The other wall of this room is an almost perpendicular bank of the soft dark red clay, in which small selenite crystals are sprouting like plants in a garden.

Suddenly we heard a heavy, rolling noise like distant thunder, and asking if it were possible to hear a thunder storm so far below the surface, were told it was the protest of angry bats against a further advance on the quarters to which they have retreated from the main body of the cave, and their orders were obeyed: so of what may be in that direction, we gained no positive knowledge besides bats, and the fact that, small as they are, their great numbers make them dangerous when angry. Returning to the gallery and continuing the journey down over slippery rock and slender ladders we came at length to the bottom of the Gulf of Doom, into which we had looked from the room now high above us; and we needed no stimulating help to the imagination to pronounce it a fit termination to an artist's troubled dream.