Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black HillsOwen, Luella Agnes
Science
Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black Hills
Owen, Luella Agnes
Caves -- Black Hills (S.D. and Wyo.); Caves -- Ozark Mountains
color and decked in places with blood-red spots or blotches of Titanic
size. The ceiling you cannot see. It is too high for the lights you have
to reach. On the left you are suddenly confronted by a stalagmitic
formation so large and so grand that all others are dwarfed into
insignificance. You think of the dome of the Capitol at Washington. You
are standing at the sloping base but cannot see the top. Just here the
guide announces in an awestruck voice 'Blondy's Throne.' And who is
Blondy? Only a fair-haired, blue-eyed, intrepid and daring
fifteen-year-old boy, named Charles Smallwood, who assisted the writer
in exploring the cave in the early days of 1883, and going on in
advance, reported back that he had found another and a greater throne
than the Great White Throne in the Auditorium.
[Illustration: Blondy's Throne. Page 47.]
"Well, here we are at Blondy's Throne at last, and surveying the base,
we find that it is actually only half in the room we are in; the other
half forms the side of another room. In a word, the Great Throne divides
the room into two parts and makes two rooms of it instead of one. Yet
the one half of the base has a measurement, by tape line, of one hundred
and fifty feet. The guide now makes preparations to ascend the Throne. A
chain has been fastened up towards the top, and by taking hold of this
the climb can be made up the sloping sides of the Throne. We pass on and
up over the clearest and most ice-like formation, resembling the great
icebergs seen at sea. Reaching an elevation of sixty feet an opening
into the dome is found, and stooping, you enter. It is a room about
twenty feet across, with a white ice-like floor, a roof or ceiling ten
feet above, and from it hang thousands of brilliant stalactites and from
the floor stalagmites rise up to meet them. They are in all sizes, from
an inch to two feet across. The sides are of the same material joined
and cemented lightly together. Strike any of them and clear musical
notes are given off; a musician has found two full octaves. Water is
dripping in many places, and in the center of the floor is a tank full
of clear water. It is four feet wide, twelve feet long and of unknown
depth.
"On the opposite side of the room from which you enter there is a hole
or opening in the wall. It is large enough to go through but it goes
into the great dark room on the other side of the Throne. An abyss
confronts you, a sheer precipice which descends for many feet, perhaps
hundreds. No man knows. This outer room of Blondy's Throne has been
named the Chamber of the Fairies. Leaving it and continuing the ascent,
the top of the Throne is soon reached and is about twenty feet across;
and from several points still higher, rise stalagmitic spires.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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