Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1910 — CAVES UNDER THE LAVA BEDS [ARTICLE]

CAVES UNDER THE LAVA BEDS

Wonderful Natural Formations, Seme .. of Them Miles Long, Found in California. In the vicinity of Tjile lake, California, about 40 extinct, volcanoes have been.found, many already being covered with thick vegetation, and beneath the -beds of lava given off by them in the past numerous interesting caverns have recently been discovered and explored. One is s?id to be 200 feet- long, 50 7?et wide and 40 feet high. Another has been reported discovered which is miles long; it has been named the •Mammoth cave of California. One recentlyexplored is said to contain two stories, ’thetemperature in the under one being so low that icicles two yards long depended from the ceiling. _ Large caves have various origins. Many” have once been solid ground, covered with heavy clay and limestone rock; the lower ground is washed away by underground waters, a roof and floor being left. ' Other caves are the result of air or other gases getting into the molten lava, expanding with the heat, and blowing themselves into Java bubbles, leaving hollows and caverns when the lava has cooled and hardened, just, as air bubbles may b»; seen to do in molten tar.— The Pathfinder