“We now descend another flight of stairs into Turtle Pass, where a large turtle rests beside the path, and just beyond is the Confederate Cross-roads, where the fissure is crossed by another forming a cross with perfect right angles.  The right hand passage is used for specimens only; straight ahead leads to the Garden of Eden, the end of our shortest route; we take the left hand path and journey through Summer Avenue, some seventy feet in length, and reach the Scenes of Wiclow, a large and high room, beautifully decorated with box work and pop-corn.  The ceiling and the left wall from floor to ceiling are fine box work.  On the right you see dark space, as a very large portion of this room is unused, but we pass the Piper’s Pig.  List!  The guide is pounding on the Salvation Army Drum, a large projecting rock that on being struck with the closed hand gives a sound very much like a bass drum.

“After walking across a short plank we enter Kimball’s Music Hall, a very beautiful room settled between two crevices and lined with box work.  Viewing the ceiling from the fissure on the right it is seen to be smooth and fringed with pop-corn.  In some places the boxes are closed, resembling finished honey-comb.  Over head box work can be seen as high as the light penetrates.  On the whole, I think this is the finest crevice in the explored cave.

“Looking straight ahead you wonder how the party can travel over such a road as presents itself to view, but the guide turns into an arch in the right hand wall and enters Whitney Avenue.  After walking across the bridge over shadowy depths, our pathway lies for some fifty feet in one of the most interesting ovens in the cave, at the end of which we enter Monte Cristo’s Palace by going down a flight of stairs.  This room has the greatest depth beneath the surface of any of the Fair Grounds’ Route, which is four hundred and fifty feet.  In this room is noticed a decided change in the box work, which is much heavier than any seen, or that will be seen on this route, and the color is light blue.

“I guess I will give the party a talk while we rest under Monte Cristo’s Diamonds, a very sparkling cluster, about six inches in diameter, of silica crystals.

“After studying the cave, it appears that it did not form in the same manner as most others; on account of the absence of sink holes, the regular arrangement of the chambers, the regular dip of the rock to the south-east from five to ten degrees, and the regularity of the long vertical fissures running north-west south-east.  In fact, the whole cave is made up of these fissures and it seems that the water has entered narrow crevices opened by some eruptive force.