Despite being only twenty-five miles apart, Mystery Cave and Niagara Cave are surprisingly different. One of the major differences between Niagara and Mystery Cave is that Mystery Cave has bats. Another difference is Mystery Cave is owned by the State of Minnesota, while Niagara Cave is privately owned. On the other hand, since the caves are located in southeastern Minnesota, they both are made of limestone, and ancient fossils are found in each of the caves. Mystery Cave is the only cave in Minnesota that has bats. One of the main reasons Mystery Cave has bats and Niagara Cave doesn’t is because when Niagara Cave was discovered, it was just a sinkhole in the ground and the opening was very small. No bats would have been able to enter the …show more content…
Bats could easily enter and exit the cave. Later, when developers decided to turn the cave into a show cave, they made a special entrance so bats could enter and exit at will. Mystery Cave is in danger of losing their bats from White Nose Syndrome (WNS). This disease is caused by a fungus that grows on the bat’s nose, turning it white. So far, no bats in Mystery Cave have been impacted from WNS, but WNS has impacted bats in Wisconsin. Bats aren’t the only difference between Mystery Cave and Niagara Cave. Another difference between the two caves is Mystery Cave is owned by the State of Minnesota. The state funds are used for upkeep and to pay tour guides. Not receiving any state funding, Niagara Cave is privately owned. Niagara Cave is the number one privately owned cave in the United States. The current owners are a family named the Bishops. They have owned the cave for twenty-one years. Both Mystery and Niagara Cave are made of limestone. Limestone is formed when areas that used to be covered with water, would have contained shelled animals and other organisms. When the animals died, their bodies along with waste matter from other organisms, floated down to the bottom of the water. Over time, it was compressed and formed limestone. Caves are usually made of limestone because it is easily carved out by water. This is the case for Mystery and Niagara
The entire tour requires a lot of walking, so wearing tennis shoes is recommended. Dress prepared for a cool environment because while inside the cave you will experience temperatures from 50-60 degrees. As you walk along the tour of the Bristol Caverns, a tour guide will inform you about the history of the cave: such as the original entrance place to the caverns used by the Cherokee Indians and how an early pioneer would store his fruit in the cave for extended freshness (tour guide). While the guide leads you through the cave of the caverns, you can view many formations and scenes. The formations are called stalagmites and stalagtites, which are created by the moisture and minerals in the cave hardening. One inch of these formations lengths can take from 150-300 years to form (tour guide). During the tour you will venture through different levels of the cave.
In one of Plato’s works called The Allegory of the Cave he goes over what it means to get higher knowledge and the path you have to take to get to this higher knowledge. Plato also goes over how this higher knowledge or enlightenment will affect people and how they act. He ties this all together through what he calls the cave. Plato tells Glaucon a sort of story about how the cave works and what the people within the cave have to do to get to the enlightenment. A while down the road the Wachowski siblings with the help of Warner Brothers Studios made a movie titled The Matrix. This movie follows the came concept that Plato does in the cave. With saying that the world that Neo (the main character) was living in was in fact not real but a made
“You’ve just crossed over into The Twilight Zone” says Rod Serling before every episode of The Twilight Zone. A show that leaves it’s viewers in a macabre state. Instead of drawing a conclusion like most shows, the show usually ends mysteriously. It utilizes similar elements as other short half-hour shows, but goes about it in a different way. This outlandish style is seen in literature, more specifically short stories, as well. Even though other short stories employ the same literary devices, “The Beast In The Cave” by H.P. Lovecraft is uniquely mysterious because of the story’s suspenseful plot, compelling diction, and, most important, overshadowing theme.
While digging in the far reaches of the African outback, now know as the western part of Kenya, archaeologist Bozo excavated a site that revolutionized the thoughts of the scientific world. At this site they found many interesting artifacts and paintings that included proof of an early civilization. At this time scientists are calling this civilization “Pontu” after one of the paintings suggested that a pontoon was used for transportation across Lake Victoria, one of the adjacent lakes.
Soon after, many visitors began coming to the cave. What was it these people were so excited to see? When visitors first entered the cave they had to go down a twenty-meter slope, which led to the first hall, The Great Hall Of Bulls. The first thing they saw in the Great Hall of Bulls were the black bulls. Attention is quickly focused on them because of their great size compared to the other paintings. Also found in the Great Hall of Bulls are pictures of horses, deer, a small bear, and a primitive unicorn. “The strange so-called Unicorn appears to be walking towards the interior of the cave.
One hypothesis behind the meaning of cave art is that is was a ritual meant to bring good luck to the hunt. During the Paleolithic period many paintings of animals such as bison, deer, cattle, horses, mammoths, bears, and reindeer were cascaded across the walls of caves along with geometric shapes. Although the meaning behind the geometric shapes is still unclear, the animal drawings could be seen as a symbol of what homo-sapiens hunted and this desire for food could have driven the imagination to create art within the caves. Possibly the animals that had been killed were painted in honor of their sacrifice, or perhaps they were painted on account of a successful hunt as a way of remembering their good fortune. This could possibly be their way of keeping a journal or a record of the animals that had been killed or seen but not hunted. The theory of the painting bringing the hunters good...
In the main cave, there is a large outcropping of limestone that circled near the ceiling of the cave. The artists have used where this outcropping and the upper wall meet as an implied line. This line serves as the ground on which the animals run. The animals are layer upon one another in multiple scenes, also indicative of the generational use of the caves (Noxon
It is now a fact that most animal species that live in caves tend to lose their vision. This trait has been observed for several centuries. For instance, in 1768, Laurenti found the first described cave-adapted animal, Proteus anguinus, which is a salamander species (Juan, Guzik, Jaume, & Cooper, 2010). It was blind and according to most tales, it was thought to be the larval phase of a dragon. This amphibian’s preliminary eye development is normal. However, development of its eyes slows down with time; the lens undergoes rigorous lytic processes and the cornea involutes, making the eye to be strongly sunken and reduced.
ruin millions of years of forming. In some parts of caves there are giant and
To begin with, there are many sources to show that vampire bats are misunderstood. First, research by Stefan Klose gives evidence vampire bats should be saved. For example, research by Chris Kraul, journalist for the Los Angeles Times, shares the opinion of an expert research zoologist, Stefan Klose. Klose speaks his heart for the creatures by saying at feeding time it always remind him “how close these animals are to us and how incredibly intelligent they are- certainly more exotic and wilder than my neighbor’s dog.” Thus, Klose also points out that are only three species of vampire bats and that we should save them. Secondly, Klose also gives evidence these vampire bats have led to medical discoveries that are beneficial to people. For instance,
The cave men only know of only one thing ignorance in not knowing of what reality is, or blatantly the truth of what makes the real world, real. Being confined is something that you can't let go or be let go of. These cavemen are not only being
Imagine living through life completely bound and facing a reality that doesn’t even exist. The prisoners in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” are blind from true reality as well as the people in the movie “The Matrix” written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. They are given false images and they accept what their senses are telling them, and they believe what they are experiencing is all that really exists. Plato the ancient Greek philosopher wrote “The Allegory of the Cave”, to explain the process of enlightenment and what true reality may be. In the movie “The Matrix”, Neo (the main character) was born into a world of illusions called the matrix. His true reality is being controlled by the puppet- handlers called the machines who use the human body as a source of energy. In the movie, Neo, finds and alternate reality and he has to go on a journey to discover himself and what is around him. Much like “The Allegory of the Cave” the prisoners in a dark underground cave, who are chained to the wall, have a view of reality solely based upon this limited view of the cave which is but a poor copy of the real world. Both the prisoners of the cave, and Neo from the Matrix, have to transcend on the path of ‘enlightenment’ to know the truth of their own worlds.
For first 400 meters or so after entering the cave, there is no rock art whatsoever. It finally appears in the form of abstract signs. They are grouped together like landmarks or navigation aids. Some seem deliberately placed next to a fissure or other feature.
Do you know that white-nose syndrome is killing the bats? According to the National Wildlife Health Center the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans is one of the causes of white-nose syndrome. According to nps.gov white-nose syndrome can also be caused by geomyces destructans. White-nose syndrome affects bats physiological functions causing dehydration. White-nose syndrome has been estimated to have killed over six million bats in the eastern part of North America since 2006. Scientists believe that a vinegar solution could be tried, however the government does not agree.
The falls serve as a border between the U.S. (New York) and Canada (Ontario). The falls actually consist of the American Bridal Veil Falls and the Canadian Horseshoe Falls, collectively called Niagara. They were created 12,000 years ago when large glaciers retreated allowing the Niagara River to flow over large sections of rock. There are several ways to view the falls, but perhaps the best way to observe the splendor and majesty of Niagara Falls is through a tour. Our tour guide directed us through many of the unseen attractions including the man-made tunnels behind the falls. Here, several