From the Smithsonian report of July 1880 – “there is nothing more beautiful in the cave than these scarfs, shawls, lambrequins of translucent calcite, some white as snow, others impregnated with the impurities of the soil above, falling in graceful folds, fringed with a thousand patterns, and so thin that a candle held behind one of them reveals all the structure within.” Appearing as smooth and flowing as a curtain folded by hand, this formation is one of the most perfectly formed stone drapery structures in the world. The translucent sheets appear to have been parted, tent-like, for an entranceway.

 

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