Astounding Stories of Super-Science January 1931 Page 10

  MYSTERIOUS CARLSBAD CAVERN

  The largest cavern ever discovered, at Carlsbad Cavern, N. M., is soongoing to be explored.

  Carlsbad Cavern is so large that that three sky-scrapers a half-mileapart could be built in the largest of its innumerable "rooms,"according to Mr. Nicholson, who was there once before, about a yearago. Only 22 miles of the cavern's apparently limitless tunnels havebeen explored, revealing such natural beauties that President Coolidgeestablished it as a national monument.

  The stalagmites in the cavern tower 100 feet high. The age of thecavern was put at 60,000,000 years by Dr. Willis T. Lee of theNational Geographic Society, after his survey three years ago.

  The caverns were discovered fifteen years ago by a New Mexican cowboynamed Jim White, according to Mr. Nicholson. White was riding across adesert waste one day when he saw what appeared to be smoke from avolcano. After riding three hours in the direction of the smoke hediscovered that it was an enormous cloud of bats issuing from themouth of a gigantic cavern. He decided the cavern deservedexploration, and a few years later he and a Mexican boy were loweredin a barrel over the 750-foot cliff which overhangs the cavern.

  The stalagmites of the cavern, according to Mr. Nicholson, are veryvibrant and resonant. One can play a "xylophone solo" on them withpractice, he said, but it is dangerous, since a certain pitch wouldcrack them.

  The temperature of the cavern is 56 degrees Fahrenheit, never varies,day and night, winter and summer. The air is purified everytwenty-four hours in some mysterious fashion, though there are no aircurrents. This is explained by the theory that there exists a greatsubterranean stream at a lower level, probably 1,200 feet down.

  Specimens of stalagmites will be collected and reconstructed for theAmerican Museum of Natural History. The explorers expect to find alsoflying fish, flying salamanders, rare insects and thousands of bats. AGovernment representative will go along, and drawings and motionpictures will be made.