VOLUME XVII, SLICE II✦

Luray Cavern to Mackinac Island

ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:

LURAY CAVERN MACABRE LURCH McADAM, JOHN LOUDON LURGAN MACAIRE LURIA, ISAAC BEN SOLOMON McALESTER LURISTAN MACALPINE, JOHN LUSATIA MACAO LUSHAI HILLS MACAQUE LUSIGNAN MACARONI LUSSIN MACARONICS LUSTRATION MACARSCA LUTE MACARTNEY, GEORGE MACARTNEY LUTHARDT, CHRISTOPH ERNST MACASSAR LUTHER, MARTIN MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY LUTHERANS MACAW LUTHER LEAGUE MACBETH LUTON MACCABEES LUTSK MACCABEES, BOOKS OF LUTTERWORTH MacCARTHY, DENIS FLORENCE LUTTRELL, HENRY M'CARTHY, JUSTIN LÜTTRINGHAUSEN McCHEYNE, ROBERT MURRAY LÜTZEN McCLELLAN, GEORGE BRINTON LÜTZOW, ADOLF McCLERNAND, JOHN ALEXANDER LUXEMBURG, DE MONTMORENCY-B. MACCLESFIELD, CHARLES GERARD LUXEMBURG (district) MACCLESFIELD LUXEMBURG (town) M'CLINTOCK, SIR FRANCIS LEOPOLD LUXEUIL-LES-BAINS McCLINTOCK, JOHN LUXOR McCLOSKEY, JOHN LUXORIUS M'CLURE, SIR ROBERT JOHN LE MESURIER LUYNES MacCOLL, MALCOLM LUZÁN DE SUELVES, IGNACIO McCOMBIE, WILLIAM LUZ-SAINT-SAUVEUR McCOOK, ALEXANDER McDOWELL LUZZATTI, LUIGI MacCORMAC, SIR WILLIAM LUZZATTO, MOSES HAYIM McCORMICK, CYRUS HALL LUZZATTO, SAMUEL DAVID McCOSH, JAMES LYALL, SIR ALFRED COMYN McCOY, SIR FREDERICK LYALL, EDNA M'CRIE, THOMAS LYALLPUR MACCULLAGH, JAMES LYCAEUS MACCULLOCH, HORATIO LYCANTHROPY McCULLOCH, HUGH LYCAON M'CULLOCH, SIR JAMES LYCAONIA MACCULLOCH, JOHN LYCEUM M'CULLOCH, JOHN RAMSAY LYCIA McCULLOUGH, JOHN EDWARD LYCK MACCUNN, HAMISH LYCOPHRON MACDONALD, FLORA LYCOPODIUM MACDONALD, GEORGE LYCOSURA MACDONALD, SIR HECTOR ARCHIBALD LYCURGUS (Spartan) MACDONALD, JACQUES ÉTIENNE ALEXANDRE LYCURGUS (Attic orator) MACDONALD, SIR JOHN ALEXANDER LYCURGUS (Greek leader) MACDONALD, JOHN SANDFIELD LYDD MACDONALD, LAWRENCE LYDENBURG MACDONELL, JAMES LYDFORD MACDONNELL, ALESTAIR RUADH LYDGATE, JOHN MACDONNELL, SORLEY BOY LYDIA MACDONOUGH, THOMAS LYDUS, JOANNES LAURENTIUS MacDOWELL, EDWARD ALEXANDER LYE McDOWELL, IRVIN LYELL, SIR CHARLES MACDUFF LYLY, JOHN McDUFFIE, GEORGE LYME REGIS MACE LYMINGTON MACEDO, JOSÉ AGOSTINHO DE LYMPH and LYMPH FORMATION MACEDONIA LYMPHATIC SYSTEM MACEDONIAN EMPIRE LYNCH, PATRICIO MACEDONIUS LYNCHBURG MACEIÓ LYNCH LAW McENTEE, JERVIS LYNDHURST, JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY MACER, AEMILIUS LYNDSAY, SIR DAVID MACERATA LYNEDOCH, THOMAS GRAHAM MACFARREN, SIR GEORGE ALEXANDER LYNN McGEE, THOMAS D'ARCY LYNTON and LYNMOUTH McGIFFERT, ARTHUR CUSHMAN LYNX McGILLIVRAY, ALEXANDER LYON, MARY MASON MACGILLIVRAY, WILLIAM LYON, NATHANIEL MacGREGOR, JOHN LYONNESSE MACH, ERNST LYONS, EDMUND LYONS MACHAERODUS LYONS, RICHARD BICKERTON LYONS MACHALE, JOHN LYONS (city of France) MACHAULT D'ARNOUVILLE, BAPTISTE DE LYONS, COUNCILS OF MACHAUT, GUILLAUME DE LYRA MACHIAVELLI, NICCOLÒ LYRE MACHICOLATION LYRE-BIRD MACHINE LYRICAL POETRY MACHINE-GUN LYSANDER MACÍAS LYSANIAS MACINTOSH, CHARLES LYSIAS MACKAY, CHARLES LYSIMACHUS MACKAY, HUGH LYSIPPUS MACKAY, JOHN WILLIAM LYSIS OF TARENTUM MACKAY LYSISTRATUS McKEESPORT LYTE, HENRY FRANCIS McKEES ROCKS LYTHAM MACKENNAL, ALEXANDER LYTTELTON, GEORGE LYTTELTON MACKENZIE, SIR ALEXANDER LYTTELTON MACKENZIE, ALEXANDER LYTTON, EDWARD GEORGE BULWER-LYTTON MACKENZIE, SIR ALEXANDER CAMPBELL LYTTON, EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON MACKENZIE, SIR GEORGE M MACKENZIE, HENRY MAAS, JOSEPH McKENZIE, SIR JOHN MAASIN MACKENZIE, SIR MORELL MAASSLUIS MACKENZIE, WILLIAM LYON MAASTRICHT MACKENZIE (river of Canada) MABILLON, JOHN MACKEREL MABINOGION McKIM, CHARLES FOLLEN MABUSE, JAN MACKINAC ISLAND MACABEBE

LURAY CAVERN, a large cave in Page county, Virginia, U.S.A., 39° 35´ N. and 78° 17´ W., near the village of Luray, on the Norfork & Western railway. The valley, here 10 m. wide, extends from the Blue Ridge to the Massanutton Mountain. The ridges lie in vast folds and wrinkles; and elevations in the valley are often found to be pierced by erosion. Cave Hill, 300 ft. above the water-level, had long been an object of local interest on account of its pits and oval hollows or sink-holes, through one of which, on the 13th of August 1878, Andrew J. Campbell and others entered, thus discovering the cavern now described.

The Luray cavern does not date beyond the Tertiary period, though carved from the Silurian limestone. At some period, long subsequent to its original excavation, and after many large stalactites had grown, it was completely filled with glacial mud charged with acid, whereby the dripstone was eroded into singularly grotesque shapes. After the mud had been mostly removed by flowing water, these eroded forms remained amid the new growths. To this contrast may be ascribed some of the most striking scenes in the cave. The many and extraordinary monuments of aqueous energy include massive columns wrenched from their place in the ceiling and prostrate on the floor; the Hollow Column, 40 ft. high and 30 ft. in diameter, standing erect, but pierced by a tubular passage from top to bottom; the Leaning Column nearly as large, undermined and tilting like the campanile of Pisa; the Organ, a cluster of stalactites in the chamber known as the Cathedral; besides a vast bed of disintegrated carbonates left by the whirling flood in its retreat through the great space called the Elfin Ramble.

The stalactitic display exceeds that of any other cavern known. The old material is yellow, brown or red; and its wavy surface often shows layers like the gnarled grain of costly woods. The new stalactites growing from the old, and made of hard carbonates that had already once been used, are usually white as snow, though often pink, blue or amber-coloured. The Empress Column is a stalagmite 35 ft. high, rose-coloured, and elaborately draped. The double column, named from Professors Henry and Baird, is made of two fluted pillars side by side, the one 25 and the other 60 ft. high, a mass of snowy alabaster. Several stalactites in the Giant Hall exceed 50 ft. in length. The smaller pendants are innumerable; in the canopy above the Imperial Spring it is estimated that 40,000 are visible at once.

The "cascades" are wonderful formations like foaming cataracts caught in mid-air and transformed into milk-white or amber alabaster. The Chalcedony Cascade displays a variety of colours. Brand's Cascade, the finest of all, is 40 ft. high and 30 ft. wide, and is unsullied and wax-like white, each ripple and braided rill seeming to have been polished.

The Swords of the Titans are monstrous blades, eight in number, 50 ft. long, 3 to 8 ft. wide, hollow, 1 to 2 ft. thick, but drawn down to an extremely thin edge, and filling the cavern with tones like tolling bells when struck heavily by the hand. Their origin and also that of certain so-called scarfs and blankets is from carbonates deposited by water trickling down a sloping and corrugated surface. Sixteen of these alabaster scarfs hang side by side in Hovey's Balcony, three white and fine as crape shawls, thirteen striated like agate with every shade of brown, and all perfectly translucent. Down the edge of each a tiny rill glistens like silver, and this is the ever-plying shuttle that weaves the fairy fabric.