the enclosed chamber and its enclosing walls. Efforts to establish the
age of the deposit by observations on the yearly growth, would afford
little satisfaction, for the obvious reason that conditions governing
the growth are dependent, in a measure, on each season's vegetation.
Deposit began, of course, after the erosion of the chamber ceased, and
therefore represents only a fraction of the age of the cave itself.
About thirty feet west of the White Throne and against the wall, stands
the next onyx attraction in the form of a beautiful fluted column nearly
twenty feet high, tapering up from a base three feet in diameter, and
known as the Spring Room Sentinel, because the Spring of Youth is just
behind it although not directly connected with the Auditorium; it being
the first chamber on the left in Total Depravity Passage, a wet and
dangerous way of which next to nothing is known, but the entrance to
which is a fine arch a few feet west of the Sentinel. The Spring of
Youth is reached by climbing through a window-like opening, and is very
small, very wet, very cold, and very beautiful. It is not more than ten
feet high nor six in its greatest length and breadth, but every inch of
its irregular surface is composed of dripstone of a bright yellowish-red
and colorless crystal; and down the glittering walls trickles clear and
almost ice-cold water, to the onyx floor where it is caught and held in
a marvelous fluted bowl of its own manufacture. This is said to be the
gem of the whole cave and seems to have been placed where it is for the
consolation of those who are unable to enjoy the peculiar grandeur of
the Auditorium, and leave it as some actually are said to do, with a
sense of disappointment, because it is not the gleaming white hall of
marble which some writers for reputable journals have allowed their
imaginations to create.

In winter the Spring of Youth Room takes on a complete coating of ice,
with icicles of all sizes hanging from the ceiling and projections. The