After having seen the more colorful scenic rooms, many visitors give this spot scarcely more than a fleeting glance, but geologists find here exacting evidence as to the Caverns' beginning. After the Swiss cheese effect was created the water was in some manner diverted and, in the absence of drip water, no stalactites or stalagmites were formed. [Illustration: © BY ROBERT NYMEYER Altar in the Chapel--Big Room] A few steps more and the visitor finds himself in a huge room with a massive rock formation hanging from the ceiling as though it might fall to the floor at some prearranged signal. Huge boulders dot the sides of the room, between which are many narrow white benches and tables. In the center of the room are long aisles which carry the visitor past waist-high counters on which have been placed hundreds of box lunches. Yes, this is the famous lunchroom, 754 feet below the surface of the earth, and just about the most popular room for those who have been hiking for the past couple of hours. The guide announces there will be a rest of 40 minutes--ample time to eat a noon-day meal and rest a couple of tired feet. It seems that no matter how many people enter the lunchroom, the line past the counters never stops or is held up. Designed to accommodate 1200 an hour, as many as 2000 hungry sightseers have been clocked picking up their lunch and beverage in that time. The lunchroom is operated by the Cavern Supply Company under the supervision of the National Park Service. Visitors who took the easy way into the Caverns, via the elevator, arrive at the lunchroom as their first stop. From this point they continue their limited tour of the Caverns pretty much on one level. With so many people in this one huge room a long way from the outside atmosphere, someone asks the guide if the air doesn't become stale and musty. No, he replies, the air changes naturally every 24 hours. How much longer does our tour last, another wants to know. This is the halfway point, says the guide, and we have about two hours more. Here many a traveler pauses a moment to absorb what he has seen--the beauty, the magnificence, the grace and charm. Mother Nature does her work so well--so thoroughly. But the guide said there is more. How can there be more--how can anything match what has already been seen? Man is indeed a humble creature, the tiniest detail in the great heavenly scheme. Great though man's work may be, God's work is ever greater. The rest period is over. It is time to go on. In a moment the party is once again assembled in the main passageway section which connects the many rooms, and turns to the left past "hanging mosses" and honeycombed fissures into the famous Big Room, largest underground chamber known anywhere, and unsurpassed in length, width and height, variety and size of formations, number of colors to be seen, and value to geologists due to the many finds that have been made. [Illustration: © BY ROBERT NYMEYER Temple of the Sun--Big Room]