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LURAY CAVERN

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 128 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LURAY CAVERN , a large See also:

cave in See also:Page See also:county, See also:Virginia, U.S.A., 390 35' N. and 78° 17' W., near the See also:village of Luray, on the Norfork & Western railway. The valley, here ro m. wide, extends from the See also:Blue See also:Ridge to the Massanutton See also:Mountain. The ridges See also:lie in vast folds and wrinkles; and elevations in the valley are often found to be pierced by erosion. Cave See also:Hill, 300 ft. above the See also:water-level, had See also:long been an See also:object of See also:local See also:interest on See also:account of its pits and See also:oval hollows or sink-holes, through one of which, on the 13th of See also:August 1878, See also:Andrew J. See also:Campbell and others entered, thus discovering the cavern now described. The Luray cavern does not date beyond the See also:Tertiary See also:period, though carved from the See also:Silurian See also:limestone. At some period, long subsequent to its See also:original excavation, and after many large See also:stalactites had grown, it was completely filled with glacial mud charged with See also:acid, whereby the See also:dripstone was eroded into singularly See also:grotesque shapes. After the mud had been mostly removed by flowing water, these eroded forms remained amid the new growths. To this contrast may be ascribed some of the most striking scenes in the cave. The many and extraordinary monuments of aqueous See also:energy include massive columns wrenched from their See also:place in the See also:ceiling and prostrate on the See also:floor; the Hollow See also:Column, 40 ft. high and 30 ft. in See also:diameter, See also:standing erect, but pierced by a tubular passage from See also:top to bottom; the Leaning Column nearly as large, undermined and tilting like the campanile of See also:Pisa; the See also:Organ, a cluster of stalactites in the chamber known as the See also:Cathedral; besides a vast See also:bed of disintegrated See also:carbonates See also:left by the whirling See also:flood in its See also:retreat through the See also:great space called the Elfin Ramble. The stalactitic display exceeds that of any other cavern known. The old material is yellow, See also:brown or red; and its wavy See also:surface often shows layers like the gnarled See also:grain of costly See also:woods.

The new stalactites growing from the old, and made of hard carbonates that had already once been used, are usually See also:

white as See also:snow, though often See also:pink, blue or See also:amber-coloured. The Empress Column is a stalagmite 35 ft. high, See also:rose-coloured, and elaborately draped. The See also:double column, named from Professors See also:Henry and See also:Baird, is made of two fluted pillars See also:side by side, the one 25 and and all perfectly translucent. Down the edge of each a tiny rill glistens like See also:silver, and this is the ever-plying See also:shuttle that weaves the See also:fairy fabric. Streams and true springs are absent, but there are hundreds of basins, varying from 1 to 5o ft. in diameter, and from 6 in. to 15 ft. in See also:depth. The water in them is exquisitely pure, except as it is impregnated by the carbonate of See also:lime, which often forms concretions, called according to their See also:size, pearls, eggs and snowballs. A large one is known as the See also:cannon See also:ball. On fracture these spherical growths are found to be radiated in structure. See also:Calcite crystals, drusy, feathery or See also:fern-like, See also:line the sides and bottom of every water-filled cavity, and indeed constitute the sub- the other 6o ft. high, a See also:mass of snowy See also:alabaster. Several stalactites in the See also:Giant See also:Hall exceed 50 ft. in length. The smaller pendants are innumerable; in the See also:canopy above the Imperial See also:Spring it is estimated that 40,000 are visible at once. The " cascades " are wonderful formations like foaming cataracts caught in See also:mid-See also:air and transformed into See also:milk-white or amber alabaster.

The See also:

Chalcedony Cascade displays a variety of See also:colours. See also:Brand's Cascade, the finest of all, is 40 ft. high and 30 ft. wide, and is unsullied and See also:wax-like white, each ripple and braided rill seeming to have been polished. The Swords of the See also:Titans are monstrous See also:blades, eight in number, 5o ft. long, 3 to 8 ft. wide, hollow, 1 to 2 ft. thick, but See also:drawn down to an extremely thin edge, and filling the cavern with tones like tolling bells when struck heavily by the See also:hand. Their origin and also that of certain so-called scarfs and blankets is from carbonates deposited by water trickling down a sloping and corrugated surface. Sixteen of these alabaster scarfs hang side by side in Hovey's See also:Balcony, three white and See also:fine as See also:crape shawls, thirteen striated like See also:agate with every shade of brown, See also:Scale 500 ft. to the See also:inch. 19. Chalcedony Cascade. 20. See also:Coral Spring. 21. The See also:Dragon. 22.

Bootjack See also:

Alley. 23. Scaly Column. 24. Lost Blanket. 25. See also:Helen's See also:Scarf. 26. See also:Chapman's See also:Lake. 27. Broaddus Lake. 28.

Castles on the See also:

Rhine. 29. Imperial Spring. 30. The See also:Skeleton. 31. The Twin Lakes. 32. The See also:Engine See also:Room. 33. See also:Miller's Room. 34.

See also:

Hawes See also:Cabinet. 35. Specimen See also:Avenue. 36. Proposed Exit.stance of which they are made. See also:Variations of level at different periods are marked by rings, ridges and ruffled margins. These are strongly marked about Broaddus Lake and the curved ramparts of the Castles on the Rhine. Here also are polished stalagmites, a See also:rich See also:buff slashed with white, and others, like huge mushrooms, with a velvety coat of red, See also:purple or See also:olive-tinted crystals. In some of the smaller basins it sometimes happens that, when the excess of carbonate acid escapes rapidly, there is formed, besides the crystal bed below, a film above, shot like a See also:sheet of See also:ice across the surface. One See also:pool 12 ft. wide is thus covered so as to show but a third of its surface. The quantity of water in the cavern varies greatly at different seasons. Hence some stalactites have their tips under water long enough to allow tassels of crystals to grow on them, which, in a drier See also:season, are again coated over with stalactitic See also:matter; and thus singular distortions are occasioned.

Contiguous stalactites are often inwrapped thus till they assume an almost globular See also:

form, through which by making a See also:section the See also:primary tubes appear. Twig-like projections, to which the See also:term helictite has been applied by the See also:present writer, are met with in certain portions of the cave, and are interesting by their See also:strange and uncouth contortions. Their presence is due to lateral outgrowths of crystals See also:shooting from the side of a growing stalactite, or to deflections caused by currents of air, or to the existence of a diminutive fungus See also:peculiar to the locality and designated from its See also:habitat Mucor stalactitis. The See also:Toy-See also:Shop is an amusing collection of these freaks of nature. The dimensions of the various See also:chambers included in Luray Cavern cannot easily be stated, on account of the great irregularity of their outlines. Their size may be seen from the See also:diagram. But it should be understood that there are several tiers of galleries, and the See also:vertical depth from the highest to the lowest is 26o ft. The large See also:tract of See also:land owned by the Luray Caverns Corporations covers all possible modes of entrance. The See also:waters of this cavern appear to be entirely destitute of See also:life; and the existing See also:fauna comprises only a few bats, rats, mice, See also:spiders, flies and small centipedes. When the cave was first entered, the floor was covered with thousands of tracks of raccoons, wolves and bears—most of them probably made long ago, as impressions made in the tenacious See also:clay that composes most of the cavern floor would remain unchanged for centuries. Layers of excrementitious matter appear, and also many small bones, along with a few large ones, all of existing See also:species. The traces of human occupation are pieces of See also:charcoal, flints, See also:moccasin tracks and a single skeleton embedded in stalagmite•in one of the chasms, estimated, from the present See also:rate of stalagmitic growth, to have lain where found for not more than five See also:hundred years.

The temperature is uniformly 540 Fahr., coinciding with that of See also:

Mammoth Cave, See also:Kentucky. The air is very pure, and the avenues are not uncomfortably See also:damp. The portions open to the public are now lighted by electric lamps. The registered number of visitors in 1906 was 18,000. A unique and highly successful experiment merits mention, by which the cool pure air of Luray Cavern is forced through all the rooms of the Limair See also:sanatorium erected in 1901, by Mr T. C. Northcott, See also:president of the Luray Caverns See also:Corporation, on the See also:summit of Cave Hill. Tests made for several successive years by means of culture See also:media and sterile plates, demonstrated the perfect bacteriologic purity of the air, first drawn into the caverns through myriads of rocky crevices that served as natural filters, then further cleansed by floating over the transparent springs and pools, and finally supplied to the inmates of the sanatorium. For a full description see an See also:article by Dr G. L. Hunner, of Johns See also:Hopkins University, in the Popular See also:Science Monthly for See also:April 1904. (H.

C.

End of Article: LURAY CAVERN

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