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descent was through supposedly non-cavernous sandstone.

   “If one of the rare dome-pits of the Kaibab Plateau intersects a washed-out section of a fault zone draining to a North Rim stream cave, a depth record will be within reach. Geologically such a circumstance is hardly more than a pipe dream of an irrepressible caver overcome by the magnificence of the Grand Canyon. But it may happen.

   “Perhaps eager caver’s plumbing the earth cracks of the Coconino Plateau have little more chance than beneath the Kaibab. But if those caver’s can penetrate twice again as deeply as Sipapu Cavern, they will begin to enter the limestones where great sewer caves may lie. If such do exist, they may enlarge away from the great canyon rather than toward it. They may not exist at all.

   Yet a cavernous network dwarfing that of Mammoth and Flint ridges may be penetrable here. Some day obsessed caver’s may break through the Coconino sandstone barrier and the shales which underlie it. If it happens, those who follow in their footsteps may emerge triumphant from obscure orifices deep in the heart of the Grand Canyon.

   “Even without such a triumph, even without knowledge of the hundreds of undiscovered caves which must exist hidden in limestone recesses of the mighty terraced depths, the Grand Canyon must be recognized as one of America's great cave areas. To some, that recognition alone would be achievement. Yet sunbaked Canyon caver’s have much in common with their Appalachian fellows. Until every crack is penetrated, every hole plumbed, spelunkers and speleologists alike will remain unsatisfied. Fragile indeed are the spelean threads which weave together Sipapu Cavern and Butler Cave, yet of such are caver's secret dreams."

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