flowers, and ornamental grasses,
and beautiful shrubs, and windin' walks, and so forth, and so forth, and
so forth--an Eden of beauty.

And in one place we see in a large tank the Victoria Regia. Its leaves
wuz ten feet long, and when in the water in its own home, the River
Amazon in Brazil, the leaves will hold up a child six years old.

Then there wuz the lotus from Egypt, and Indian lilies, and that
magnificent flower, Humboldt's last discovery, "the water poppy."

It wuz a sight--a sight.

But of all the sights I see that day I guess the one that stayed by me
the longest, and that I thought more on than any of the other contents
of Horticultural Hall, as I lay there on my peaceful pillow at Miss
Plankses, wuz the reproduction of the Crystal Cave of Dakota.

[Illustration: My peaceful pillow at Miss Plankses.]

The original cave, so fur as they have discovered it, is thirty-three
milds long--

Three times as long as the hull town of Lyme--the idee!

Thirty lakes of pure water has been found in it, and one thousand four
hundred rooms have been opened up.

Here is a reproduction of seven of them rooms. Two men of Deadwood of
Dakota wuz over a year a-gittin' specimens of the stalactites and
stalagmites which they have brought to the Exposition.

One of the rooms is called "Garden of the Gods;" another is "Abode of
the Fairies," and one is the "Bridal Chamber;" another is the "Cathedral
Chimes."

Language can't paint nor do anything towards paintin' the dazzlin' glory
of them rooms, with the great masses of gleamin' crystal, and slender
columns, and all sorts of forms and fancies wrought in the dazzlin'
crystalline masses.

The chimes wuz perfect in their musical records--the guide played a tune
on 'em.

They wuz all lit up by electricity, and it wuz here that the plants wuz
a-growin' by no other light but electricity.

By windin' passages a-windin' through groups of fairy-like beauty and
grandeur, you at last come out into the principal chamber, and here
indeed you did feel that you wuz in the Garden of the Gods, as you
looked round and beheld with your almost dazzled eyes the gorgeous
colors radiatin' from the crystals, and the gleamin' and glowin' fancies
on every side of you.

And I sez to Josiah--

"The hull thirty-three milds that this represents wuz considered till
about a year ago as only a small hole in the ground, so little do we
know." Sez I, "What glorious and majestic sights are about us