The uncovered platform which serves as a station being reached a few minutes before the train arrived, I expressed an unwillingness to detain our guide longer on account of his having a walk of four and a half miles to his home; but he declined to consider the subject; saying he had been directed not to leave us until we were taken safely on the train, which came sweeping round the curve on time and stopped for us.

CHAPTER XV.

CRYSTAL CAVE CONCLUDED.

According to agreement the guide again met us at the station on the following morning, for another day in the cave, which we entered with no unnecessary loss of time, and hurrying through the main entrance pa.s.sage, Government Room and Statuary Hall, went down Beaver Slide, which, on the previous day, we had pa.s.sed to enter Rocky Run. Our descent into the crevice took us past those portions known as Suspension Bridge and Rebecca's Well, and over some very "rough country" to the most wonderful parts of the cave. Numerous pa.s.sages open out in various directions; one to rooms of frost work of great beauty; another to the Ribbon Room where the drip deposits on the walls are in ribbon-like stripes of red, yellow, and white, while others yet are ways to the Catacombs. And it is the Catacombs we particularly wish to see, as they most perfectly represent the individual character of the cave and have, as yet, received no injury from either time or man; but is a region as difficult to travel as the way of the transgressor, and many miles can be traversed with no prospect of coming to the end. But where locomotion is so slow and painful, the owner of a pedometer would find that instrument a discouraging companion and soon learn better than to consult its record publicly.

The Catacombs are a series of connected fissures and small crevices in which every inch of exposed surface is covered with clear, translucent, almost transparent, calcite crystals, neither coated with lime nor stained with clay; nor even is the pearly l.u.s.tre dimmed with the slightest trace of dust. The crystals are very sharp and of all sizes, ranging from half an inch to three and a half inches in length, the larger sizes being conspicuously abundant. The entire region is an enormously large, perfectly formed, and undamaged geode. In reality, the whole cave is a great cl.u.s.ter of connected geodes, and a similar work probably does not exist, but if it does, has never been discovered. The fissures from which it is formed were opened by volcanic violence and then enlarged, and afterwards decorated by the varied power of water, in action or repose.

When the storms toward the close of the Tertiary period suddenly overwhelmed with floods the dense growth of tropical vegetation and mult.i.tudinous animal life in the Northwest, the waters necessarily became heavily charged with the naturally resulting carbonic acid gas, and this, acting on the limestone rocks, would decompose them, leaving a residual clay and taking the chief portions of the mineral components in solution, to be afterwards deposited according to circ.u.mstances and conditions; and these are indicated by the various results found in Wind Cave, Crystal Cave, the Onyx Caves and the Bad Lands. The latter being previous to that time by no means "bad," but richly luxuriant in tropical vegetation, which gave shelter from the heat to great numbers of curious animals.

Some approximate idea of the extreme age of these caves may be gained from the fact that bones of a three-toed horse have been discovered in a chamber of Crystal Cave that must be practically unchanged since the remains were carried in from the outside, as otherwise they would have been buried beneath the fallen ma.s.ses of crystal covered rock with which the entire floor is c.u.mbered. And yet this room is so remote from any present connection with the outer world that it is impossible for their introduction to have taken place in recent times.

In the beautiful Catacombs progress is as slow as in a cactus thicket or a blackberry patch. The crevices lack none of the usual crevice irregularities; high places must be mounted or descended, chasms crossed and narrow pa.s.sages crawled through, while extra caution must be exercised to avoid striking the head or making a misstep that might result in a fall. The hands are in constant use and soon become so sensitive that holding a soft handkerchief gives infinite relief; but the worst experience is the "crawls" where only the soles of the feet, being temporarily turned up, seem safe from the savage treatment of the sharp calcite dog-teeth. The worst crawl encountered was a small one having a downward slope with a jump-off at the end which necessitated its being taken feet first. Fortunately it was short. But in no place do the difficulties outweigh the pleasure of beholding scenes of such beauty, or suggest regret for the time, torn garments, and personal exertion required for its enjoyment.

In many portions of the cave the surface layer of crystals has had the points worn away by the action of water, later than that in which they were formed; but in the Catacombs and other extensive regions as well, the finished work of crystallization is preserved in an absolutely perfect condition. And everywhere the largest crystals are on the under side of a projection or the roof of a cavity.

As the day was pa.s.sing far too rapidly and many points of special interest yet remained unseen, we turned with reluctance from the beauty and relief from the hardships of exploration in the Catacombs, and made our way over a crevice into Santa Claus' Pa.s.s, which was traversed for a considerable distance and then abandoned for a low crawl terminating at the Senate Chamber. This is a large room extending to Poverty Flat, and is brilliantly red and purely white, most of the crystal presenting a smooth surface. Under the Senate Chamber there is said to be some fine box work which we had no time to visit. The name of this chamber was given by a visiting party composed of members of both houses of Congress. A smaller room, which is really an extension of the Senate Chamber, has handsome walls of white and red box work on account of which the same distinguished party called it the Senate Post-office.

From here a difficult crawl, through red rock, well-worn by the action of water, leads to the Starr Chamber, another large room in white and red, and named by Senator Starr of South Dakota.

Opening out from the last room is a curious, dangerous looking, narrow, crevice-chamber known as Suicide Room on account of the threatening appearance of over-hanging rocks, some of which have at times fallen in great ma.s.ses of various sizes to form an irregular floor; and a descent of this is necessary in order to reach a short and extremely rough crawl, beautifully and painfully decorated with sharp crystals above and below and on the sides. From this we emerge into Rainy Chamber, an elliptical room not less than two hundred feet long by one hundred feet wide, with a tent-like ceiling rising high in the center and sloping down to meet the floor, which also slopes irregularly toward a deep central depression, giving the room a greater height than any other visited. The high points are generally seen in the narrow crevices, while the rooms of generous length and breadth are usually low, many of the largest having an average of five feet or even less.

Although there is frequent intersection of crevices, and each chamber has pa.s.sages leading out on every side, the general direction of the cave is said to be northwest-southeast.

Rainy Chamber is named from the fact that during the early months of summer water falls constantly in the form of a light shower; but it drips at all times, and in consequence there is an opportunity to study the active process of formation of one of the deposits which is very abundant in Wind Cave and considered the most perplexing. This is the pop-corn, and the theories of its origin have been steadily rejected at Wind Cave because of a doubt being entertained as to whether it has been deposited under water or by drippings. Here in Rainy Chamber it is fully explained. Near the center of the room the fallen ma.s.ses are heavily crystallized, much of the groundwork being fine box work and the crystals in perfect condition. On these crystals the pop-corn is being formed, and specimens can be seen in all stages of development, from the beginning to an approximate degree of finish; and whatever the position it occupies on the receiving surface, either on top, underneath, or on a side exposure, it always maintains the same relative position as growing plants on the mundane sphere. The water falling on the upper surface in scattering drops forms myriads of minute stalagmites; on side positions the falling drop first strikes the point exposed to its line of descent and then spreads. The scant moisture slowly makes its way down sloping sides and shelving edges, leaving on each small irregularity a tiny portion of its volume, to deposit an infinitely small charge of solid substance, and the balance finally hangs in moisture less than drops on the growing grains of the under surface.

Pop-corn, therefore, is the globular aragonite of the stalagmitic variety. A small specimen from Rainy Chamber, placed beside one of the same color from Wind Cave, shows them to be absolutely alike.

Rainy Chamber is the room in which the bones of the three-toed horse, already referred to, were found, but their presence has not yet been explained; therefore the case is open to conjecture and several theories may be advanced and their values considered. The first question when such a discovery is made, is whether the living animal was possibly a cave-dweller; which, as the horse was not, is quickly disposed of and attention turned to the next, the possibility of a carniverous animal having carried his prey into the dark recesses of the cave in order that the enjoyment of his dinner might be undisturbed. This theory is equally unavailable by reason of the topographical features presented. If the present natural entrance to the cave were the only way into this room from the outside, the distance was too great and beset with many difficulties; besides which the final pa.s.sage is too small to admit an animal of sufficient size to carry any considerable portion of even a very small horse. But if at that period the room had direct communication with the outside through an opening since closed, the shape of the walls indicate that it must have been a pot-hole in the roof, and through this an animal could have entered by falling, which the horse and others may have done. But it seems most probable that the remains were carried in by the water through such a hole before it was closed at the beginning of the Quaternary period, when the erosion of the Hills was most active.

Rainy Chamber also contains a large and beautiful a.s.sortment of the small polished and coated pebbles called cave pearls.

The guide being anxious that we should not fail to see the Niagara Room, we now turned toward a low, broad opening in the wall, a short distance to the right of the entrance, where the rising floor and descending ceiling, failing to meet, had overlapped; so we made our way up a steep, smooth bank, and then down on the other side over a broken, rocky surface for a distance of about twenty feet, when the roof at last joined the floor and two small water-worn holes at the point of junction revealed an untempting pa.s.sage within. The broader of these holes was three feet, but too low to be considered an entrance; the other was round but certainly not so large as our guide, who was preparing to enter it with doubts of his ability to make the trip, on account of having increased in size since his one entrance there, on which occasion two smaller guides pulled him through the tightest places. Carefully comparing his size with that of the hole he sat beside, there was no possibility of doubt that if the attempt were made he would stick fast, and that would place our little party in dire straits. Consequently I insisted that it should not be, but he was unwilling that Niagara should be missed when so near. Finally I positively refused to go unless he would consent to give us instructions and remain where he was while we went without him, to which he at last yielded with extreme unwillingness. He had frequently shown us the guide's marks, and now earnestly cautioned me to advance only as they point, and turn back if they should fail.

The small nephew went on a reconnoitering expedition to the end of the pa.s.sage, and reported that the jump-off there was higher than himself but he could get down. I now crawled through the hole and found the pa.s.sage to be a "crawl" or rather a "sprawl," from fifteen to eighteen inches high, but having an ample width varying from three to six feet.

The smooth, straight floor has a steep downward inclination and is thickly covered with dust.

Having reached the widest portion, which is near the end, Herbert directed me to turn, so as to come down the jump-off feet first, where there was a little difficulty in landing, as the perpendicular wall, which proved to be almost five feet high, offered only one projecting help, and that within a few inches of the base; but in obedience to his advice to "reach one foot a little farther down and then drop," I advanced the right one, to be told not that, but the other, and was soon down where it was possible to observe with interest that the right foot had been swinging above an open fissure. We stood in a wide crevice running at right angles to the obnoxious pa.s.sage we had just quit, and immediately found a guide's mark on a large rock, and others followed at intervals of a few feet over extremely "rough country" as the guides say. Everywhere the work of water was apparent, not in the crystal deposits of still water as in other portions of the cave, but the erosion due to its rushing through. Carefully following the marks, they led into a cross-crevice that took us under Rainy Chamber, and ends there by widening into a circular chamber of about fifty feet width in either direction, and rising to a height of nearly fifty feet in a fine dome. Down the wall from near the top of the dome there appears to flow a beautiful waterfall showing a variety of colors in the straight lines, as if from refraction. The fall is, of course, dripstone, and I knew we had found Niagara, although we had gone beyond the reach of the guide's voice almost at the start. A huge rock directly under the dome has received the falling drip until it represents a mountain cataract. These deposits testify to the great age of the chamber they adorn, as they were necessarily not commenced until all heavy flow ceased, and in Crystal Cave the acc.u.mulation of dripstone is so slow that it is said six years' observation can detect no increase whatever.

Several small pa.s.sages at the floor level gave exit to the great volume of water that evidently at one time entered this crevice, from Rainy Chamber, by the route we followed, and being checked in its course the lower end of the crevice became filled, under pressure; and the low position of the outlets gave this water a whirling motion that in time excavated the dome-shaped room.

No part of Crystal Cave has ever been occupied by a river, but its fissures, opened by the violence of earth movements accompanying nearby volcanic disturbances, have been filled more than once by the inrush of waters which repeatedly submerged the whole Black Hills region.

Following again the marks which guided us into Niagara Room, we soon came within hailing distance of a voice expressive of profound relief; and as we crawled up the sloping pa.s.sage, over-heated and breathless with the exertion, the guide a.s.sured us he was most truly thankful to see us again, as he had never in his life experienced so severe a scare as since it had occurred to him that we had gone beyond the limits of communication without a single match.

He also said I had been where no lady had ever gone before, and took satisfaction in the fact that many men have refused to make the venture with a guide.

Leaving this portion of the cave, by returning as we came, through Suicide Room, Starr Chamber, and Senate Chamber, we crawled along the rocks overhanging a narrow fissure, to reach a ladder at the end, by which we descended to another part of the Catacombs. Here, after traveling a long distance over uneven floors covered with sharp crystals, as were all surfaces, through large, low rooms, and narrow, crooked pa.s.sages, constantly a.s.sisting the difficult advance with our hands, like monkeys, we finally came to The Grotto, which is probably the most remarkable room in this very remarkable cave. It is a large room, with much of the irregular ceiling so low that even the small nephew struck his head severely while turning to warn me, as he often did, of threatening inequalities in the floor and light them with his own candle. The crystals here are exceptionally fine, being very sharp and of unusual size, besides many of them being double--that is, pointed at both ends. Through this beautiful ceiling there is a percolating drip adding stalact.i.tes to the crystal-points and piling stalagmites on the crystal ma.s.ses below, varying this with imitation cascades, mats of small flowers, and ma.s.ses of pop-corn. Off to one side in a kind of recess there is a depression in the crystal floor filled with clear, cold water.

A glance at the time now showed us to be in danger of failure to meet the train to town, and consequently, tired as we were after nine hours of rough travel and much climbing, it was necessary to make our way out with more speed than comfort, and we found the weather turning very cold. The cave was carefully locked, preparations for the train hurriedly made, the house closed, and as we left it the train could be heard coming down the canon, but we arrived at the station first, though breathless, and a few minutes later were in Piedmont, too tired to properly enjoy a hot venison supper.

As to the size of Crystal Cave, it is impossible to make any positive statement; for as Mr. McBride, the proprietor, says, no survey has yet been made. Other persons said that thirty-six miles is the greatest claim made for the combined length of all pa.s.sages, and sixteen miles the least, so it may be wise to accept the lesser number until a survey proves it wrong.

The box work in Crystal Cave is not of such great abundance as to demand special attention, but is very beautiful, and one variety deserves particular mention. These boxes have been formed in dark red sandstone, and after being emptied of their original contents, have been completely filled with colorless calcite crystals, and over this is spread an outer surface of the same crystals tinted a brilliant flame color by red paint-clay having been taken in solution by the crystal forming waters.

A specimen of this was a temptation too great to be resisted even in the owner's absence.

Some of the box work is of such size that a single box may have a capacity equal to that of a bushel measure, but it is less beautiful than the smaller forms.

On the following morning we left Piedmont, and having a desire for greater personal knowledge of the Hills, took the same train which had taken us to the cave, and traveled to its western terminus, Lead City.

The interesting scenery makes this a desirable trip for any one visiting the Hills, but its beauty is chiefly ma.s.sed at the ends, the middle distance being over gradually rising ground, which is without a counterpart of the rocky canon left behind or more than a suggestion of the high hills yet to come. The special charm of this portion was the magnificent pine forest which covered it until three years ago, when it was swept by a terrible fire, from which the settlers escaped with only their lives; and even that would have been impossible if the railroad company had not kept refuge trains waiting for them just ahead of the flames. The prominent geological feature here is the porphyry dikes, which are becoming more numerous and more prominent, and in many places resemble a conspicuous group near Harney Peak, called The Needles. These d.y.k.es are of special interest in connection with a study of the caves, since they are probably of simultaneous origin.

The same volcanic movements that caused the violent upheaval of the whole region, and thrust up molten ma.s.ses through the strata to form a central core to the Hills, must also have rent the nearby regions with fissures through which probably much gas escaped, and having been further opened and then adorned, now demand our attention as caves of unique and curious beauty.

The approach to Lead is over the hill-tops with a magnificent distant view, and the first glimpses of that young city famous for having as a center the Homestake mine, the largest gold mine in the world, are charming. It is situated far down in a valley among the high hills and spreads some distance up the surrounding slopes.

The works of the great mine are wonderful, and visitors welcome to examine whatever they find interesting; any questions they wish to ask are graciously answered, although every one is busy. This is not a special favor to the exceptional few, but the courtesy shown to all.

Visitors are also welcome to descend into the mine, but as an attendant is necessary on account of dangers to be avoided, a permit must be obtained at the office.

Several other caves have been discovered in the Black Hills, the largest of which is the Davenport Cave at Sturgis. Very little exploration has yet been done in it, but indications are said to be that it will take rank among the large ones.

At Galena, a new mining town of golden promise, there is reported to be an Ice Cave, where ice forms at all seasons, and during the warm weather is a source of comfort and pleasure to the miners.

In the evening, as train time for continuing the homeward journey approached, the snow storm which began gently early in the afternoon, grew steadily more severe. A carriage to the depot was not to be had, as every vehicle in town had gone to the funeral of an old-timer in the Hills and the return delayed by the storm. The situation could not be regarded as a special pleasure, but cave hunters learn to accept whatever is and be thankful for the general average. At the last moment, however, a team was driven up and permission given us to make use of it.

It proved to be the private conveyance of the hotel proprietor, and the young boy who accompanied us, his son.

Our train was on time, and the ride through the Hills to their southern limit, in the falling snow, was wonderfully beautiful; but the storm continued for many days and was one of the most severe on record.

Those persons who have been so unfortunate as to permit themselves to accept a ready made opinion of dangers and roughness to be met with in the more newly settled regions, might find a tour of the Hills doubly interesting by making a supplementary study of "The Living Age," which cannot be so correctly viewed from a distance as is sometimes supposed, since the specimens exhibited are not always a true average of the strata they are supposed to represent.

CHAPTER XVI.

CONCLUSION.

After a visit to the marvelous caverns of the Black Hills, much may be added to the pleasure already enjoyed, through the explanatory activity of the Yellowstone National Park, where even the wonderful combinations of beauty and grandeur are by no means the full measure of attraction and charm. Here is found evidence to verify theories concerning the caves, and those theories in turn contribute in no small degree to a satisfactory understanding of the mysteries of geyser action. For scientific study the two regions should be taken together, since the natural conditions are practically the same, and the chief difference lies in the stages of development; the present of the Park explaining the recent past of the Hills, while the present of the Hills foretells the future of the Park. It seems that Nature, with a full appreciation of the limits and restrictions binding our powers to penetrate certain secrets of an intermittent force, has in this great western country carefully prepared what might quite properly be termed a progressive course of study, wherein each locality makes plain a special point that somewhere else appears obscure.

As has been said in the preceding chapters, the two great caves in the Black Hills of South Dakota cannot be accounted for by the same methods as are recognized as being responsible for the slow excavation of the best known caves of the United States. Although there is every indication that both these caves have been subject to the action of enormous volumes of water, there is equally positive evidence that neither was ever the scene of a flowing cave-river. The lowest levels in both show the narrowest fissures and the heaviest deposits of crystal, by which we infer that the water was held in confinement here, while all the higher pa.s.sages or channels bear witness to the water's flow. But many of these channels in Crystal Cave, or indeed we might say, most of them, present an unmistakable record of the gauge of the water stage at different periods. During the earlier time, when the volume of water and consequent pressure were greatest, frictional motion must have been limited to the main channel connecting with the vent, and the high gauge of water maintained a fairly uniform degree of heat near its surface. In consequence of these conditions geyser action, probably, was constant, and chemical activity was such that great chambers were formed and then decorated, as already described, with wonderful ma.s.ses of crystal. As the water gauge receded to lower levels the higher chambers became storage basins for water and steam forced up by the pressure from below, and the time required for these to fill and acc.u.mulate sufficient pressure to continue the ejectment, formed the periods between eruptions after the geyser became intermittent. It was during this stage that the sharp crystals in many of the channels, now called pa.s.sages, were worn down to smooth surfaces; and later, when water occupied only the lowest level, and the great geyser had become reduced to merely a steam vent, the channels immediately connecting with that level were in their turn subjected to the same smoothing process, and then all action ceased.

As no two of the glorious geysers of the Yellowstone Park are alike, neither do the two great caves of the Hills indicate that they should be so. The vent-tubing of each is quite unlike that of the other in all the essential governing points of length, size, shape, angle of inclination and power-conserving bends. And the differences extend in an almost equally marked degree throughout the vast and complicated succession of storage chambers and their connecting channels. The small vent of Wind Cave shows that the ejected jet was far from being equal to that of the Crystal Cave in volume; but the nearly perpendicular long arm of its tube shows also that its jet attained a much greater height, even supposing that it should be necessary to make some allowance for a short elbow at the top.