Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico

Оглавление

Jim White. Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico

HOW JIM FOUND THE CAVERNS

JIM EXPLORES FARTHER

JIM AND THE KID SPEND THREE DAYS IN THE CAVERNS

PICTURES PROVE JIM’S STORY

THE GOVERNMENT TAKES OVER

THE CAVERNS BECOME A NATIONAL PARK

Отрывок из книги

Jim White kept his counsel, waited a couple of days for the opportunity, then gathered together several coils of rope, a kerosene lantern, some wire and a hand-axe.

“I got back to the cave about mid-afternoon. You know the opening faces West, and the sun was in the right place to shine down into it. There was enough light so I could see the bottom of the shaft. Off to the right I could see the opening of a huge tunnel, and my imagination started running ahead of me. Where would that tunnel lead? I made up my mind to find out.”

.....

To arrive at this point, Jim White had crept cat-like across a dozen dangerous ledges and past many a tremendous opening that seemed to reach downward into the very center of the earth. He dropped rocks to sound depths; into one opening he pushed a great boulder. It hit something—not bottom—and kept rolling and rolling until the sound faded into a haunting memory of sound.

“I walked through more of those ‘stalagmites’, and each one seemed larger and more beautifully formed than the ones I’d already seen. I blinked at the sight of giant-size wonders that turned out to be gleaming ‘onyx’. The ceilings blinked back at me with clusters of ‘stalactites’ … like great chandeliers. The walls sparkled and glittered.”

.....