"The Giant's Causeway is only a few steps beyond. This bit of scenery has some resemblance to the famed basalt attraction on the coast of Ireland. We 'duck' our heads under the Arch of Politeness and rise to a standing position in Lena's Arbor, a very irregular shaped room admired by a great many of our visitors.
"We enter Capitol Hall at the side, about midway between the ends. It is the largest room yet visited, being some two hundred feet from end to end, with a very high ceiling. Here we notice the walls and ceiling are bare of box work and other formation, and are clean and white. The decorative appearance exceeds any room yet visited. After getting into line again we go down a flight of stairs to Odd Fellows' Hall, a chamber that on examination suggests its name. In the ceiling is situated the 'All seeing eye,' one of the emblems of that august body, and at a little distance the 'Three links;' also in the ceiling, and just under the latter is situated a rock very much resembling a goat. Attention is called to the first appearance of pop-corn work, a very peculiar formation resembling pop-corn after it has broken open, and in this part of the cave it is quite plentiful.
"We now descend another flight of stairs into Turtle Pass, where a large turtle rests beside the path, and just beyond is the Confederate Cross-roads, where the fissure is crossed by another forming a cross with perfect right angles. The right hand passage is used for specimens only; straight ahead leads to the Garden of Eden, the end of our shortest route; we take the left hand path and journey through Summer Avenue, some seventy feet in length, and reach the Scenes of Wiclow, a large and high room, beautifully decorated with box work and pop-corn. The ceiling and the left wall from floor to ceiling are fine box work. On the right you see dark space, as a very large portion of this room is unused, but we pass the Piper's Pig. List! The guide is pounding on the Salvation Army Drum, a large projecting rock that on being struck with the closed hand gives a sound very much like a bass drum.
"After walking across a short plank we enter Kimball's Music Hall, a very beautiful room settled between two crevices and lined with box work. Viewing the ceiling from the fissure on the right it is seen to be smooth and fringed with pop-corn. In some places the boxes are closed, resembling finished honey-comb. Over head box work can be seen as high as the light penetrates. On the whole, I think this is the finest crevice in the explored cave.
"Looking straight ahead you wonder how the party can travel over such a road as presents itself to view, but the guide turns into an arch in the right hand wall and enters Whitney Avenue. After walking across the bridge over shadowy depths, our pathway lies for some fifty feet in one of the most interesting ovens in the cave, at the end of which we enter Monte Cristo's Palace by going down a flight of stairs. This room has the greatest depth beneath the surface of any of the Fair Grounds' Route, which is four hundred and fifty feet. In this room is noticed a decided change in the box work, which is much heavier than any seen, or that will be seen on this route, and the color is light blue.
"I guess I will give the party a talk while we rest under Monte Cristo's Diamonds, a very sparkling cluster, about six inches in diameter, of silica crystals.
"After studying the cave, it appears that it did not form in the same manner as most others; on account of the absence of sink holes, the regular arrangement of the chambers, the regular dip of the rock to the south-east from five to ten degrees, and the regularity of the long vertical fissures running north-west south-east. In fact, the whole cave is made up of these fissures and it seems that the water has entered narrow crevices opened by some eruptive force.
"You see small holes eaten in the ceilings and walls in every direction, which indicates that the water came from a higher level, and being under great pressure, wanted passage out. It seems the cave was a reservoir for a long time, then after the water stopped flowing in it slowly receded, and in settling the overcharged waters covered the rocks and specimens with a calcareous coating, very thin in the upper portions of the cave and getting thicker the deeper you go, giving evidence as you see, of slowly settling. Had the waters rushed out they would in all probability have left the rocks uncoated as in all other caves, with one exception, the Crystal Cave, some seventy-five miles to the north of Wind Cave.
"As we have some more caves to see we must journey on.
"Taking one last look at Monte Cristo's Diamonds we pass into Milliner's Avenue, a very pretty avenue indeed with nearly as many colors as a milliner's show-window would present. About mid-way of this avenue we cross the bridge over Castle Garden, a room in the eighth tier beneath the surface. From this avenue we step into the Assembly Room. Here the formations are covered with a gypsum crystal that sparkles with wonderful brilliancy. On the right is a passage leading to the Masonic Temple, a room that any body of Masons would be proud of could they hold lodge meetings in it. The passage on the left is the terminus of the Pearly Gates' Route, the longest developed route in the cave. After moving along some distance we see the Bad Lands, and then come into the Tennis Court. This room has the net in the ceiling and I suppose the party can furnish the raquet (racket). On the right hand side of this room there is tier upon tier of box work; looking to the left, you shudder at the almost bottomless pit just beside the pathway. Here we take a rest preparatory to climbing up to the Marble Quarry, a task of two flights of stairs. This is a very large room and has the most uneven floor, ceiling and walls of any that our visitors see, and is barren of specimens excepting in the first part over the stairs where there is some box work of very pretty structure and color. Some distance up the path we see on one side the Ghost of 'She,' and on the other the Devil's Punch Bowl, a large rock with a basin-shaped hole about thirty-six inches across and sixteen inches deep, but lo! the bottom has been broken out: which is very appropriate as South Dakota is at present a prohibition state. A winding path is followed until attention is called to the Sheep's Head above an arch over the passage, and the ceiling here is of flint, the ledge of which is four inches thick.