Florida Caverns: A Nature-Made Underground Wonderland [Illustration: The stone administration building, which has been erected near the entrance to the caverns, was built by hand from the solid rock foundation to the hand-riven cypress shake roof. The walls are built of beautifully weathered native limestone and the shelter roof is supported by hand-hewn timbers prepared on the ground. Parties, who tour the caverns, join guides here and return after the tour.] [Illustration: Florida Caverns] FLORIDA CAVERNS Here we behold most wondrous sights No mortal understands, Of stalactites and stalagmites, A house not made with hands. Here Nature set to work her hands In ages long since gone, That man might quit his work on lands To see and ponder on. What means these fluted columns tall,— These pendants from the dome? These sculptured figures large and small, Excelling Greece and Rome? This drapery striped with Nature’s hues, In regular spaces wrought? These scenes man’s pride at once subdues— They are beyond his thought. The brute would look and turn away To seek his fill of food; ’Tis ours to seek while here we stay, The Great Creative Good. The Architect within whose mind The wonders of the sea, The land, the sky, and all their kind, Has wrought for you and me. That we may look upon His deeds And make our own expand, For we alone best serve all needs As tools within His hand. —_Charles Cottingham_ _Marianna, Florida_ [Illustration: The stalagmite on the right is almost joined with a stalactite. If it does, it will make a column. The grape-like clusters in the upper foreground result when the flow of water is so slow that all of it evaporates from the ceilings and deposits its mineral load there.] FLORIDA CAVERNS A NATURE-MADE WONDERLAND _By_ Robert O. Vernon _Assistant Director, Florida Geological Survey_ Florida is truly a child of the sea, since all the rocks composing its land were formed directly on the ocean bottoms or by streams emptying along the shores. From the record of these rocks we know that Florida has been alternately above and below the sea many times in the geologic past. In fact, the rocks visible in the park area at Florida Caverns, near Marianna, Florida, and in the caves were formed from the hard shells of animals that lived in one of these seas. As the animals died, their shells accumulated on the sea bottoms, where they were covered by other shells and hardened into lime rock.