iles of passageways.
Of course they do not understand how we get the mileage. In going to the
Fair Grounds we travel about three miles. In each fissure there are
eight levels, which makes twenty-four miles of cave from the entrance to
the Fair Grounds.

"Of the formations in the cave, the different kinds are on different
levels, the stalactites and stalagmites nearest the surface on the
second, the frost work on the third. This formation is in most instances
as colorless as snow. The mode of its formation is not thoroughly
understood, but is found in such positions as suggest its being formed
by vapors overcharged as spoken of about the water. It is almost always
on an over-hanging rock, over or near some fissure leading to a deeper
portion of the cave. Box work in this level is scattering and fragile:
in the fourth it is the prevailing formation: in the fifth it is heavier
and a little darker; in the sixth it varies in style and color, and
pop-corn appears, a queer formation resembling pop-corn ready to eat. It
is not so purely white here as in the lower levels, seventh and eighth.
In the seventh the box work is heavier than any seen on the Fair
Grounds' Route and the color is nearly blue, having a faded appearance.
In this tier is also found a good deal of mineral wool, which must not
be mistaken for asbestos. It sometimes attains a length of eighteen
inches and at one place where it seems to come out of a hole two inches
in diameter, and drops down like a grey beard, we have named it Noah's
Beard.

"In the eighth tier we find very beautiful formations of carbonate of
lime, and the box work is decidedly blue, the boxes larger, and their
partitions one half inch thick.

"We have been deeper than the eighth tier but in narrow crevices barely
admitting a man of average stature. In these the calcareous coating is
much thicker than in any higher portions of the cave, but very little
sign of box work is seen.

"Sometimes we make a comparison between the cave and a sponge. Take for
instance a sponge as large as an apple barrel and there would be holes
in it as big as a man's thumb and closed hand. Now take a sponge, four
miles square and five hundred feet deep with holes in proportion to the
little sponge, and you have an illustration of The Wonderful Wind Cave,
of Custer County, South Dakota."

CHAPTER XI.

WIND CAVE CONTINUED.

PEARLY GATES AND BLUE GROTTO ROUTE.

A very much longer, more beautiful, and