The finest scenery in the Hills is said to be that of the Spearfish
Canon, north of Deadwood, and the finest of that at the Falls, but this
may be doubtful as other points are very beautiful, especially where the
Burlington & Missouri Road requires a distance of seven miles to climb
the canon wall.

Piedmont being the nearest town to Crystal Cave, we took the early
evening train on the Elk Horn Road and soon were located, and shocked to
learn that the proprietor of the cave had started several days before to
drive to Wind Cave for specimens. The cave was closed and no one there.
The trip had been taken for the one purpose of exploring Crystal Cave,
and a letter sent in advance to announce our coming, but the train
carrying it was an hour late so he drove off without the mail.

There seemed at first nothing to be done but take the next returning
train, which, under the circumstances, was objectionable. A night's rest
and a telegram that had to be sent twelve miles by special messenger,
improved the situation. The proprietor was unavoidably detained at Wind
Cave, but secured a reliable guide, expressed me the cave keys, and has
since married the "specimen" he had gone in quest of. May great
happiness dwell at the cave many years!

The morning of the third day after our arrival found arrangements all
complete, and soon after the train left Piedmont it entered Elk Creek
Canon, which is always beautiful, but on that morning was exceptionally
so on account of a sudden change in the weather having covered every
visible portion of the passing landscape with heavy frost. The trees on
distant hills that ordinarily are black, were, for once, all softly
white, and when the tall pines in the canon were shaken by a breeze,
they cast a shower of flakes like snow.

Here the canon walls are in Carboniferous Limestone with a pleasing
variety of color in the strata, and the erosion-carving not overdone,
the most notable piece being the Knife-blade. This, at first view,
appears to be a high, round tower, but the train following the curve,
reveals the fact that it is not a tower, but a thin, curved
knife-blade. The sun just for one instant shone through a rift in the
clouds, and added special charm to the scene.

[Illustration: The Knife-Blade. Page 178.]

A short distance beyond is Crystal Cave station, where the guide was
waiting to take us in charge. He is an intelligent young man who has
served an enlistment term in the army, is r