known.

The original cavity is nearly filled up with masses of onyx--colorless
crystal and white striped with pale shades of grey. The cave is
perfectly dry and freshly broken surfaces in some places show signs of
deterioration, so how can we venture even a guess as to the time it has
required to first excavate the cave and then fill it with masses of rock
deposited by the slow drip process, and later, for that crystalline rock
in a now dry atmosphere to present a perceptible weakening? We went as
far as passages could be crawled into, which was no great distance, and
at once started on our uncertain descent of the ladder; but this was not
a matter of so much concern as the upward trip, for the success of
which some doubts were entertained; for going down is always naturally a
less certain matter, as one can fall if more desirable means are
unsuccessful, and I have unexpectedly reached many coveted points in
this simple manner.

Taking a last look at Greer Spring with its cave river, grey walls, gay
with foliage, and all the harmony of color and form combined in the
narrow cañon that was once the main body of a great cave, I recalled
views on the Hudson River and in the mountains of Maryland, Virginia and
Pennsylvania, and others out in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and the
Wausatch in Utah, but amid all their wonderful grandeur and famous
beauty, could remember no spot superior to this masterpiece of the
Ozarks.

The proprietor of the Spring and a thousand acres of land adjacent, took
personal possession on the day of Lincoln's first election, to establish
a home.