"Chris, Scott Bauman (a gastropod expert from Guam) and I navigated the twisting passage into the bowels of the mountain. Guided by flickering cap lamps we rapped from drop to drop, downclimbed on slimy limestone knobs, and belly crawled through greasy chutes, all the while descending deeper and deeper into the earth. Flickering in our lamps, dazzling white forests of stalactites were revealed; some as tiny as sewing needles and others as large as trees hang from the ceilings. Each had its own life-giving drop of water suspended from its tip. As the drips drop, a corresponding stalagmite grows from the floor. Where the mites meet, columns are created and the forest metaphor is complete. Helectites, bizarre twisted calcite formations, looked like the bones of something dead reaching out to us from the cave walls.