Every portion of Crystal Cave has at one time been heavily crusted with calcite crystals, mainly of the dog-tooth variety, and any barren places are so either because the surface has been removed for specimens, or thrown down by the violence of an earthquake.  But where the latter has been the cause of removal, the crystals have in most cases been renewed, which is amply evidenced by the fallen masses being crystallized on all sides; and these as well as most of the walls, are not covered thinly with one crust, but layer has been added to layer until the thickness is four to ten inches and often more.  The ceilings that have been denuded by nature’s forces during the same early period when water filled the cave were also renewed.

From the Pyramid Room a narrow fissure forms a passage to the Cactus Chamber, where there is a marvelous floor on which the crystals are in bunches like cacti, and the beautiful ceiling is the finest and most irregular unbroken mass of crystal yet seen.

Passing through a round hole known as the Needle’s Eye, we enter Statuary Hall, where the latest inrush of water has eroded the sharp points from the crystals, leaving only smooth surfaces, and at the same time done much curious carving, the most conspicuous pieces of this work being a bear and the heads of an Indian and his baby.

Out from the Hall are two important routes, one down the steep incline of Beaver’s Slide to The Catacombs, and another, which we followed first, is through Rocky Run, a rough and rocky pass, to a large and handsomely crystallized chamber called the I.X.L.  Room, on account of those three letters, over twelve inches in height, being distinctly and conspicuously worked in crystal on a magnificent piece of box work that would weigh nearly half a ton, for which an offer of five hundred dollars is said to have been refused.

The next chamber beyond is Tilotson Hall, very large and extremely rough, and named in honor of a teacher from the Normal School, who delivered an address here that gave much pleasure to both visitors and guides.

The way to farther advance is now more difficult and through a jagged crevice of threatening appearance, but the trip is made in safety and with comparative ease, and brings us into Notre Dame, one of the largest chambers in the cave and perhaps the finest, although where so much is fine that may be uncertain.  The display of box work and crystal is sufficiently gorgeous to do honor to the famous old cathedral of France, the ceiling especially being a masterpiece of the builder’s and decorator’s arts; but the grandest portion, which a visitor recently returned from foreign travel called The Russian Castle, on account of the magnificence of the large box work and pearly crystal masses, should rather be known as the great cathedral’s crowning glory, The Altar.

Another large room, the handsome Council Chamber, is entered just as that Altar of pearl is lost to view; and from there an up-hill trip is taken through a narrow crevice to Whale Flat, which is the natural history room, with a large whale as the show specimen.