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THE LUCAS CAVETHE LUCAS CAVE.
The Lucas Cave presents, in grand combination, almost every type of subterranean beauty to be found in the natural limestone caves of Jenolan. It rivals the Imperial Cave, which, however, is commonly regarded as the more attractive, and displays a more dazzling magnificence than that which characterises either the Arch or the Elder Cave. The approach to the Lucas Cave is by a zigzag path from the valley, leaving the high Pinnacle Rock to the left hand. The route is not difficult to agile people, but the road would be greatly improved by the cutting of suitable steps. On gaining the top of the ridge the waterfall is in front. To the left are rocks rising like a vast citadel to a height of 900 feet, at the summit of which are immense cliffs with deep gorges between them. The distance is too great to enable the visitor to discern their geological composition. Some of them seem as though they had been shaped by human hands in the time of the Pharaohs. They remind one of the enormous stones in the Great Pyramid of Egypt, or the massive blocks in the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis, and the limestone ridges suggest the mighty Nile which runs through similar ranges. These elevated pinnacles and chasms are favourite resorts of marsupials. Wallabies may be seen leaping from rock to rock and peering out from the crevices. As they are not molested they afford visitors ample opportunity to watch their graceful movements. The distance from the top of the ridge to the mouth of the cave is about 100 yards, with a fall of 60 feet. The descent in some places is so steep as to make it difficult in dry seasons. In wet weather it is dangerous, the rocks being covered with slippery clay.
The grand cavern, called the "Lucas Cave," was so named in recognition of valuable services rendered by the Hon. John Lucas, M.L.C., who, from the 8th December 1864, until the dissolution of Parliament on the 15th December 1869, represented in the Legislative Assembly the electorate of Hartley, in which Jenolan is situated. He used his influence to obtain the dedication of the reserve, and make provision for the care and improvement of the caves. It was on his recommendation that the present cave-keeper was appointed to the office of curator. His foresight and activity are suitably commemorated by the association of his name with objects of beauty, the fame of which is now spread throughout the whole civilised world.
The opening to the Lucas Cave is very massive, and has a rather steep fall of about 12 feet from the pathway to the floor of the cavern. The entrance is about 30 feet wide and 25 feet high. The roof of the portico is ornamented by rocks, which in shape and colour appear to be in keeping with the gloomy-looking tunnel beyond. The overhanging masses are honeycombed and convoluted in a remarkable manner, and thin off to points like stalactites. The curved, tapering forms are in groups of various dimensions, drooping in folds like those of loosely-fitting garments. They represent not "formation," but the original rock, out of the crevices of which the softer portions and earthy substances have been extracted by the ordinary operations of Nature. To the left of the archway is a bulky convoluted pillar, rising from the surrounding blocks and boulders to the uppermost part of the portico, and to the right of the archway is a fine piece of stalagmite formation about 10 feet in height. In the centre, immediately behind it, is a large stalactite, and near by an extensive patch which looks like conglomerate of lime and pebbles. On the outer walls are flowering shrubs and creeping plants, including one which bears a strong resemblance to the climbing fig (Ficus stipulata), which clothes with pleasant verdure many an ugly wall in and about Sydney. The rock colouring isespecially fine and beautifully shaded all the way from the broad daylight to the beginning of the interior blackness, which is somewhat sharply defined by a fringe of stalactites like the vertical bars of a portcullis.
The immediate entrance to this cave is begrimed with dust. A few yards onward there is an iron gate. The guide opens it and carefully locks in his visitors, who light their candles and proceed by a downward path. The descent is about 80 feet, partly by steps cut zigzag fashion, and then on a sloping floor covered withdébris. There is a marked difference in the temperature, which is many degrees higher than that of the outward air, and several degrees warmer than the interior of the Arch and Nettle Caves. Small flies surprise the excursionists by the suddenness of their appearance, and by the narrow limits of theirhabitat. They live in the zone between daylight and darkness. In the region of perpetual night the only signs of animated nature are clusters of bats. The lighted candles serve to make the surrounding darkness more pronounced.
Where the rays of light pierce through the night to its rocky boundary indistinct, irregular lines can be seen like the ribs of a skeleton, and it is easy to conjure up all sorts of uncanny shapes, from hobgoblins to anthropophagi. The only sounds audible, or apparently audible, are the quickened respiration and the throbbing of the heart. When the voice is raised its effect is strange, and there is no responsive echo. Darkness and silence dwell together. After spending a few seconds—or minutes—in their company, the curator lights his magnesium lamp, and the visitor finds himself in the precincts of "The Cathedral," in the centre of which is a large stalagmite. The roof rises to a height of about 300 feet, 70 feet loftier than Canterbury Cathedral or Notre Dame, and within 100 feet of the altitude of St. Paul's! The walls are composed of limestone, terraced with tier upon tier of stalagmites brought into bold relief by the gloom of innumerablefantastically-shaped recesses. The preacher is Solitude; his theme is "Awful Stillness." Wandering through the nave to the south, the visitor walks over caves not yet opened, but the existence of which can be proved by dropping little pebbles into dark recesses and listening to the percussion on floors more or less remote. In an aisle of the Cathedral leading to the Music Hall, there is another grandly-arched cavern with a steep descent into an abysmal depth. Here on the one side are numerous stalactites, white as virgin snow, and on the other similarly-shaped formations of carbonate of lime tinged with oxide of iron—some of them so deeply as to present the colour of a boiled lobster's crust. This is a favourite clustering place for bats, and numbers of these membranous-winged quadrupeds may be seen snoozing together on the roof.
By means of a wire ladder the excursionist descends still deeper into the bowels of the earth. He then goes farther down by 18 or 20 steps, cut in a clayey substance, to the vestibule of the Music Hall. Some of the stalagmites are stained with clay. They have evidently been used as steadying-posts by visitors who had previously placed their hands on the red earth when working their way down the declivity where the steps are now formed. The other stalagmites away out of reach are white and glistening. The approach to the Music Hall, which was discovered in the summer of 1860, is low. The passage to it is about 35 yards long. The floor is composed entirely of "formation," and at the sides are numerous columns of different colours. The Music Hall itself is about 12 feet in height, and runs out at the end to about two feet. It is called the "Music Hall" because of its very fine acoustic properties. A weak voice raised in song or oratory sounds full and sonorous. This hall encloses a secret which architects of public buildingsmight covet, and the wonder is how such tonic effects are produced in a chamber which presents so many obstructions to the waves of sound. The floor contains a series of basins, curiously shaped by the water which has been retained in them, until it has escaped by percolation to form stalactites and stalagmites at some lower level. The edges of these shallow reservoirs are sharply defined and gracefully moulded. The formation of the walls is extremely delicate. Some of it is white and some like yellow coral. The roof has been slightly defaced by certain nineteenth century cads. In various places the "mark of the beast," in lampblack, has been produced by holding candles near to the ceiling and moving them about gradually, and the sooty hieroglyphics remain unto this day as an evidence of vanity and folly. The floor, which was once like alabaster, is now soiled by the tramping of feet. But, notwithstanding these defects, the Music Hall is still very beautiful.
THE SHAWL CAVETHE SHAWL CAVE.
Returning to the main passage, the tourist descends 41 steps, and enters the Shawl Cave, a magnificent chamber, the roof of which slopes at an angle of about 43 degrees. Into one side the "formation" of carbonate of lime has floated like lava in volumes, and presents the appearance of a suddenly congealed cascade. All the adjacent rocks are covered with fine sheets of formation, white and coloured, and hanging in graceful folds. On a far-off wall is more formation of a similar kind, projecting from a perpendicular rock, and variegated with superb tracery and colouring. The "shawls" hang parallel to each other. They gradually increase from six inches to three feet in depth, in a lateral length of from 12 to 15 feet, and at a distance appear as though they had been placed on the wall by an artist; but when the light is put behind them it is seen that they are independent, slightly corrugated,semi-transparent slabs of equal thickness and graduated widths. Of this kind of formation, however, more magnificent specimens are to be found in the Imperial Cave. In another part of this cavern are large detached blocks of formation, which sparkle like diamonds all over the lines of fracture. They are in wild disorder, as though they had been hurled about in some Titanic conflict. The stalactites here are of different character from those found in the other caves, being composite and covered with ornamentation of various kinds. The lower rocks, too, are rippled and chequered like wicker-work, and resemble the formation of the Pink Terraces of Rotomahana, which were destroyed by lava from a volcano in 1886. The roof is about 100 feet high, and the sides of the cave are formed of massive ledges, over which a limey substance has flowed in large masses and assumed elegant shapes fringed with stalactites. Near this place is a hole which goes down to the bottom of another cave. It has not yet been fully explored, but it has been ascertained that its depth is about 120 feet, with a clear pool at the bottom. A stone thrown down it is heard to strike two or three times, and finally splash in the liquid crystal.
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At the western end of the Shawl Cave, and on its southern wall, is a remarkable formation denominated "The Butcher's Shop." Experts in the preparation of animal food have discovered in this strong resemblances to sides of beef, joints, and "small goods" covered with a reticulum like the netted membrane sometimes thrown over meat exposed for sale. One would hardly expect to find anything æsthetic about such a display. As a realistic production, however, it will bear favourable comparison with some so-called works of art which show how much humour a jocular sculptor can cut into a piece of cold stone. In its bearing upon gastronomy, exception might be taken to one or two of the joints, which suggest veal that has been "spouted," and an excess of adipose matter; but upon the whole the "shop" may be regarded as a not unpleasing representation of a chamber filled with chilled meat.
Leaving the unromantic stall and ascending seven steps under a roof about 90 feet high, the cave-walker ambulates towards the Exhibition, which is approached by 12 wooden steps, leaving to the right a beautiful formation like a frozen waterfall of from 20 to 25 feet. These steps have pendant from them fungi of the most delicate kind, some resembling eider-down, hanging in flossy masses from underneath the cross pieces. This fungoid growth affords evidence of dampness destructive to the timber, which ought to be replaced by more durable material. It is satisfactory to know that specifications have been prepared and tenders forwarded to the Department for this work. It will be more satisfactory to learn that prompt action has been taken inregard to them, and that they have not been simply docketed and smothered in some obscure pigeon-hole.
The road to The Exhibition is rather rough, there being large masses of angular rocks on either side, and the pathway itself is somewhat rugged. The entrance to the Bride's Cave is to be seen down a rocky declivity of about 30 feet. The gallery leading to this chamber is only about 12 inches by 18 inches. The cave itself is about six feet high, and hung around with drapery of alabaster. The ceiling is of coral formation, and the floor pure white. Farther on to the left is another chamber, the entrance to which is pretty, but difficult of access. It is from 6 inches to 10 feet high. There is beautiful formation in one part from the ceiling to the floor. Some of it is like straws, as clear as glass, and a portion of the floor sparkles as though it were set with diamonds.
The Exhibition is of large proportions, being about 250 feet each way, but its height ranges only from 5 to 20 feet. Its floor is reached by nine steps. From the centre of the Exhibition the entrance to the Bride's Chamber is on the right. To the left is a broken column, which at one time was sound from the floor to the roof, but which has been fractured apparently by the sinking of the rock on which the stalagmitic portion rests. The separation is slight, and there is a slight departure from the right line.
To the eastward are several interesting stalactites. One represents a black fellow's "nulla-nulla," another a lady and child, another the palm of a hand blackened by candle smoke. On the south side is a spacious platform like the stage of a theatre—the front, about 40 feet wide, is supported by two columns. The height is about 18 feet, and across the top is a curtain of formation representing drapery gracefully arranged, with a fringe of little sparkling stalactites. On each side of this is a smaller entrance similarly adorned and asexquisitely beautiful. The floor of the stage is about 15 feet deep, and the curved ceiling about 40 feet from the drop curtain to the floor. This is as it appears at a distance. On nearer approach it is perceived that the pillars are uneven, and marked with formations of various kinds. That which seemed like a stage becomes an irregular cavern, with immense rocks lying about in great disorder. When the Exhibition is illuminated by the magnesium light, some beautiful red and white stalactites are disclosed, glittering like dewdrops in the sunlight, and also some exceedingly pretty stalagmites. This chamber was called "The Exhibition" on account of the variety of its specimens. It contains stalactites and stalagmites, white and coloured—variegated shawls—sombre marble and sparkling rocks, clusters of formation, and elephantine masses of carbonate of lime in shapes which prove how much more subtle than professors of art is Nature herself. At the south end a cave slopes down, and there are boulders anddébrisstained with iron, as well as other indications of great soakage and percolation.
Eastward, about 40 feet, is the "Jewel Casket." On the way to it are openings to numerous unexplored caves. Affixed to an immense block of limestone are some 30 or 40 shawl-pattern formations of various sizes, which give forth musical sounds when struck with a hard substance, and which, with a little practice, could be played upon like a mammoth harmonicon.En routefrom the Exhibition to the Jewel Casket, although the passage has not been so dry for twenty years, the rocks are covered with moisture, and the lime can be scraped off like soft soap. From the Exhibition there is a descent eastward of about 100 feet along the gallery, which is somewhat narrow, but the roof of which is covered with pretty stalactites. Near the entrance to the Casket is a remarkable reticulated rock. The descent is by 23steps east, and then proceeding north about five yards the Jewel Casket is reached.
THE BROKEN COLUMNTHE BROKEN COLUMN.
The Jewel Casket is at the end of a very remarkable cave. Its ceiling is marvellously beautiful. The walls and ridges on each side sparkle like gems of the first water. Some of the rocks are covered with virgin white, and some are delicately coloured. The entrance to the Casket itself is very small, being only about 15 inches by 8. Its upper portion is of glistening rich brown, and slopes in varied graceful folds down to the bed rock. When the magnesium light reveals the splendour of the interior it is seen that the Casket stretches away to a considerable distance; the floor is covered with white and amber brilliants and snowy coruscating flakes of dazzling purity. Here are clusters of cave diamonds, opals, and pearls, with delicate fawn-coloured jewels scattered about promiscuously. Rich and rare are the gems this Casket contains, and exclamations of delight are evoked when their charms burst upon the view like a vision of fairyland. Neither tongue nor pen, nor photographic art nor pencil-sketch, can ever do full justice to this natural treasury of beautiful things.
Leaving the Jewel Casket, the visitor proceeds in a northward direction along a passage, from the Exhibition to "The Hall to the Bridge." There is an ascent of 13 steps west, and then the way to the Hall is under a low archway, through which it is necessary to proceed on hands and knees. Through this archway is a little cavern, something like the Jewel Casket, with a floor of diamond drift and delicate coral. At the top of the steps the Hall runs north-west. Then the way lies down a gradual slope of rough rocks to the head of 18 steps, with a wire rope on the right hand side. At the top of the steps near to the Jewel Casket and in the Hall to the Bridge is a piece of formation like an upholstered sofa, which has been named"Judge Windeyer's Couch," because it is said that the learned Judge sat on it when he visited the caves. Its surface is of a rich reddish brown, and may have suggested the celebrated woolsack which, in the days of "good Queen Bess," was introduced as the Lord Chancellor's seat in commemoration of the Act to prevent the exportation of wool which was at that time as important an element in England's prosperity as it is at present to the well-being of Australia. In the Hall beautiful formation is seen. A large rock, with shawl-pattern appendages and other ornamentation, is specially attractive. Another represents a miniature Niagara, done in stone. The features are varied by splendid stalactites, from pure white to rich brown. The formation on the wall is like frozen fountains. The bottom consists of huge rocks, angular and rugged, with immense flags of limestone. About 10 yards from the Bridge is "Touch-me-not" corner, with a grotto quite out of reach, but of the interior of which, when the light is flashed into it, a splendid view can be obtained. The stalactites are perfectly shaped and beautifully pure. Some of them are as white as snow, some are opaline, and others are tinged with mineral colours. The floor has many stalagmites and sparkling formations like a jewelled carpet, which falls from the entrance a little distance down the wall in graceful brown folds fringed with russet stalactites. Here the Hall is very spacious, being about 120 feet across, and the roof rises from 10 to 50 feet. It has on it some of the most beautiful stalactites in the caves, many of them being of unsullied white. To the left, high up on the side of the Hall, is a piece of pure lime formation like a lace shawl, the apparent delicate network of which is an object of special interest, if not of envy, to the fair sex.
THE UNDERGROUND BRIDGETHE UNDERGROUND BRIDGE.
The Underground Bridge is not a brilliant achievement in engineering, but seems to be well constructed and safe, which is an importantconsideration; for, although it is so many hundred feet below the summit of the mountain, and yet down so low as to be on the same level as the foundations of the Cave House in the adjacent valley, it spans a black yawning gulf, at the extremity of which, 50 feet still farther down, is a clear pool of water 20 feet deep! The Bridge is about 42 feet long. It has wire girders and uprights, with stanchions and handrails, and a wooden deck, which, by-the-bye, needs some repair, for several of the planks are broken. The passage is made increasingly secure by galvanised wire netting stretched along the lower part of the Bridge on both sides. The rocks which form the boundary of the immense chasm spanned by the Bridge are of enormous size, and the scene from this point is remarkable for sublimity rather than for what is commonly called beauty. Near the roof is an immense recess, filled with huge stalactites and mammoth pieces of formation, which have floated over the bottom and formed graceful ornamentation for the cavern below. And so the process is repeated from the top of the immense chamber, near the roof, down to the rugged walls immediately round the Bridge. Even on the rocks which surround the abyss similar wondrous decorations are lavishly bestowed. The clear-headed and sure-footed guide descends from one jutting rock to another and yet another, until he approaches a row of remarkable stalactites which can be just discerned through the gloom. This group is called "The Piano," because of the resonant qualities of its separate parts. Each stalactite gives out a note. The notes vary in quality and pitch, but most of them are imperfect. As stalactites they are very fine, but as melodious instruments they are frauds. They refuse to harmonise, and their music is about as entrancing as that of a discordant "upright grand," mounted on one leg and played with a handle.
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Seventy or eighty yards from the Underground Bridge is the Lurline Cave. The course is south-west, through a curved gallery with 53 steps in different flights, and two archways—one like loveliness when "adorned the most," and the other formed by an ornate mass of stalactites.
The Lurline Cave is justly regarded as one of the most charming chambers in the group. Thecoup d'œilis magnificent. It does not need any close examination to find that it has some distinctive features which show that, although there is no aqueous accommodation for the queen of the water nymphs, whose name it bears, the appellation of this portion of the Lucas Cave cannot, etymologically at least, be considered as alucus a non lucendo. There are the "coral bowers" and cells to which Rudolph was transported; the "halls of liquid crystal, where the water lilies bloom;" there is the cool grot in which the Water Queen dwelt; there is the rock on which she sat "when all was silent save the murmur of the lone wave, and the nightingale that in sadness to the moon telleth her lovelorn tale;" there is Rhineberg's magic cave, with its "wedges of gold from the upper air;" there are the distant recesses to which Lurline sent the gnome while she restored to life her mortal affinity. With such surroundings it is easy to reproduce, link by link, the rosy chain which enthralled the German Count and "The Daughter of the Wave and Air."
Or, to take the more rollicking version by "Thomas Ingoldsby, Esq." Here is "a grand stalactite hall," like that which rose above and about the impecunious "Sir Rupert the Fearless," when he followed to the bottom of the Rhine the dame whose—
"Pretty pink silken hose cover'd ankles and toes;In other respects she was scanty of clothes;For so says tradition, both written and oral,Heronegarment was loop'd up with bunches of coral."
"Pretty pink silken hose cover'd ankles and toes;In other respects she was scanty of clothes;For so says tradition, both written and oral,Heronegarment was loop'd up with bunches of coral."
Where—-
"Scores of young women diving and swimming,* * * *All slightly accoutred in gauzes and lawns,Came floating about him like so many prawns,"
"Scores of young women diving and swimming,* * * *All slightly accoutred in gauzes and lawns,Came floating about him like so many prawns,"
and where their queen, Lurline, lost her heart and her plate, and, according to the same reverend author, her cajoler, whose disastrous fate inspired the moral—
"Don't fancy odd fishes! Don't prig silver dishes!And to sum up the whole in the shortest phrase I know,Beware of the Rhine, and take care of the Rhino!"
"Don't fancy odd fishes! Don't prig silver dishes!And to sum up the whole in the shortest phrase I know,Beware of the Rhine, and take care of the Rhino!"
The floor is covered with hemispherical mounds or domes for the naiads to recline on. The outer wall is composed of formations ranged in festoons of stalactites—not smooth and transparent, but opaque white, and marked with all the wonderful elaboration which characterises zoophytic work in the coral reefs of the Southern seas. This cave contains several sub-caves, each of which has special charms, and the turning of some of the arches is marvellously graceful. One of the recesses is filled with stalactites which look like groups of seaweed. The coral is russet and cream colour and saffron, and there are honeycombed rocks varying in shade from vandyck brown to chrome yellow. Some of the stalactites in the interior sub-caves are transparent. Whichever way the eye is turned it encounters submarine grottoes of fantastic shape, decorated with imitations of algæ. If it were only at the bottom of the Rhine instead of thousands of feet above sea-level, itwould seem natural as well as beautiful, but here its existence is simply a wonder, and the sensation produced is fairly described by the last word in the marriage service of the Church of England. Still, "when Mother Fancy rocks the wayward brain," it is easy to associate with it denizens of the deep, and people it with naiads, or with Undines, who were supposed to marry human beings, and, in certain conditions, become endowed with human souls. The cave is about 15 feet high, and from 15 to 20 feet broad. Some of the coralline ledges at the sides are remarkably handsome, and many of the stalactites are from six to eight inches in diameter. The cavern is elegant in its proportions, highly favoured in regard to stalactite growth, graceful in contour, and rich in colouring.
About 15 yards north-west from the Lurline Cave is the Fossil Bone Cave. To reach this cavern it is necessary to ascend 12 steps. It is scarcely less beautiful than the Lurline Cave. The lime formation represents pensile boughs of weeping-willow, garlands of flowers, and stalactites covered with all kinds of floral decorations. Here also are some fine "shawl" formations hanging from the rocks. One of them is called "The Gong," because it produces a sonorous note similar to that of the Chinese instrument which is superseding the dinner-bell, and challenging its title to be regarded as "the tocsin of the soul." On a sloping side of the floor are some forms distinctive in shape and colour, and resembling a lot of small potatoes shot down indiscriminately. The wonder is how in such a place they could have been so formed and isolated. Here is an oblique cavern, at the bottom of which a bone of some large animal lies embedded in the limestone formation like a type in a matrix. At one time it was doubted whether this, which appeared to be bone, was really an osseous substance, butsubsequent examinations have proved that it is bone. A fracture of the rock has shown that the outer part of the bone is compact, and the inner part cellular. It is beautifully white, and, as the formation about is brownish, the phosphate can be readily distinguished from the carbonate of lime. On the roof above the Fossil Bone Cave is a rare stalactite about 20 feet in length, and by the side of the tomb of the unknown animal—which may have been anything from a diprotodon to a dingo—is a splendid monumental stalagmite. The cave is about 50 feet high, and 50 feet in length and breadth. The roof is of a light cream colour, and has brown stalactites of perfect shape. The side rocks are magnificently draped. Numerous splendid columns like white marble, and sheets of stalactitic growth, excite wonder and admiration.
About 40 yards through a hall, running north-east of the Fossil Bone Cave, is the Snowball Cave, which is about 9 feet high, 25 or 30 feet long, and from 6 to 10 or 12 feet wide. It runs north-north-east. Its distinctive feature is that its roof and a portion of its walls are covered with little white masses like snowballs. Some of the patches of carbonate of lime stick to the walls in isolated discs, and others are massed as though snowballs had been thrown at a mark, and a number of them had stuck close together. Some of the stalactites in this chamber have been formed by the upward pressure of water, and assume many tortuous shapes. An interesting feature of this portion of the caves is the existence of a number of stalactites which show how readily vibration is communicated from one to another. The visitor puts his finger to the end of a stalactite, and when an adjacent one is struck so as to make it sound, it is perceptible that the vibration of the sounding stalactite is communicated to its silent neighbour.
There is one more chamber to visit in the Lucas Cave. To reach it the visitor ascends four steps, and travels north-west about 14 yards to the head of a wire ladder, which he descends to a place directly underneath the Snowball Cave, and then he goes down the steps into the Wallaby Bone Cave, over the entrance to which is a very pretty cluster of stalagmites, from 6 inches to 18 inches long, and varying from the thickness of a straw to three-quarters of an inch in diameter. The floor is covered with wallaby bones, and in the immediate vicinity are quantities of osseous breccia.
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The Bone Caves are intensely interesting, and a considerable amount of attention has been paid to them by scientists. In 1867, Professor Owen, when writing to the Colonial Secretary, said that the natural remains obtained from the limestone caves of Wellington Valley in 1832, "revealed the important and suggestive fact that the marsupial type of structure prevailed in the ancient and extinct as well as in the existing quadrupeds of Australia." Seventeen years ago there was an expedition to the Wellington Valley Bone Caves. Parliament voted £200 for the purpose, and an investigation was made by Mr. Gerard Krefft, who at that time was curator of the Australian Museum, and Dr. Thompson. They obtained many valuable and rare specimens, some of which were said to be quite new to science, consisting of the remains of mammals, birds, and reptiles. The largest bones and teeth discovered were of a size equal to those of a full-grown elephant. They were remains of diprotodons and nototheriums, gigantic marsupials now extinct.
The Wellington Valley Caves were discovered by Sir Thomas Mitchell more than 50 years ago. From them no fewer than 2,100 specimens of fossil remains were presented to the British Museum. When the result of the exploration was forwarded to Professor Owen, he said that the conclusion was very much what might have been naturally looked for, and that the only disappointment he felt was the absence of human remains and works. Ten years ago an attempt was made to obtain the co-operation of the neighbouring colonies in the work of thoroughly exploring the caves of the western and southern districts andAustralian rivers. The proposition originated with the Agent-General for New South Wales, Professor Owen, and Sir George Macleay, but the adjacent colonies did not see their way to participate, whereupon our Cabinet decided to do the work without extraneous aid, and £600 was voted by Parliament for the service of 1882. At an earlier stage Professor Liversidge had written to the Colonial Secretary, transmitting the following extract from a letter he had received from Professor Boyd Dawkins, M.A., F.R.S., of Owens College, Manchester:—"Would the Government of New South Wales undertake the systematic exploration of the wonderful caves which are in the colony, and which certainly ought to be explored? Not only is there a certainty of adding to the great marsupials which have been obtained, but there is a great chance of finding proof that man was living at the same time as the extinct animals, as he has already been found in Europe and Asia. I should expect to find a very low form of the aborigine. Such an inquiry would be of a very great interest to us here in England, who are digging at the caves all over Europe, and the duplication which would be obtained would enable the trustees of the Australian Museum to increase their collections largely by exchanges."
The minutes of the meetings of the trustees of the Australian Museum show that in 1881 a committee, consisting of Dr. Cox, Mr. Wilkinson, and Professor Liversidge, was appointed for the management of the exploration of caves and rivers, and it was decided that the following caves should, if possible, be examined in the order as written:—Wellington Caves, Cowra, or Belubula Caves, Abercrombie, Wollombi, Fish River (now Jenolan), Wombeyan, Wallerawang, Cargo, Yarrangobilly, Murrumbidgee, Kempsey. The Goodradigbee caves were also included, and from them was taken a great quantity of bones of small animals, with a number of jaw, thigh, hip, and shin bones of some animals of the kangaroo family. The smaller bones were those of mice, bats, birds, and marsupials. In the Wellington breccia cave a shaftwas sunk, and on the 20th September, 1881, Mr. E. P. Ramsay, curator of the Museum, reported, among other things, the following:—"A great number of interesting bones have already been obtained from this shaft, but the mass of 35 feet of bone breccia which we passed through shows that we have here a large field for exploration. From this shaft we have obtained bones of the following animals, besides a great number of small bones yet undetermined—Diprotodon, macropus, palorchestes, sthenurus, procoptodon, protemnodon, halmaturus, thylacinus, bettongia, sarcophilus, phascolomys, dasyurus, phalangista, pteropus (?), bats, rodents (mus), a few lizards' bones, and a few vertebræ of lizards and snakes."
Other caves also were explored, but it was found that the bones obtained from them were of recent origin. It is a question whether it would not be desirable to make still further investigations. The osseous breccia—where it exists—appears to be similar in all the caves. There are rifts and pits and chambers where animals have retired to die, and where from time to time their bones have been formed into cement with the liquefied rock, which in process of time has again hardened and become a solid compound of bone and stone.
In the southern room on the first floor of the Sydney Museum is a large collection of bones from the Wellington and other caves. These remains have been collected during the last four or five years under the direction of Mr. Ramsay, the curator. They are chiefly the bones of marsupials. There are not among them any fossil remains which indicate the presence of man in Australia at any very remote period. Some of the principal bones are those of extinct marsupials, and are important from a scientific point of view. They include bones of the following animals (species extant) found in the Wellington caves:—The thylacinus (Tasmanian tiger), sarcophilus (Tasmanian devil), mastacomys (a rodent), hapalotis albipes, and mus lineatus (New South Wales). Other important fossil remains in the Museum are those of the thylacoleo(two species), diprotodon, procoptodon, protemnodon, palorchestes, macropus titan, nototherium, phascolomys. There are not in the Sydney Museum any bones from the Jenolan Caves—which, however, contain many interesting remains of the animal world,—because the search for them would involve the destruction of attractive features. For these reasons attention was given to the Wellington Caves, whose beauties were not likely to receive further disfiguration than they have already suffered.
From the Wallaby Bone Cave the visitor returns to the Fossil Bone Cave, and ascends a wire ladder which is about to be replaced by an iron staircase. As he mounts this wire-rope ladder, which is 76 feet long and not "stayed," he feels the necessity for some better means of communication. From the top to the Cathedral is about 25 yards south-east. A large portion of the cave north-west from this point has not been explored. There are five or six different branches, one of which runs out to daylight at a small aperture (14 inches by 18 inches) over the rise of the water below the Grand Archway and the Devil's Coach House. The distance from here through the Cathedral to the entrance gate is about 70 yards, up two flights of steps. There is a gradual ascent to the steps, and the final flight of 41 brings the excursionist to the gate and to the sunshine. He will be glad to rest awhile before entering the Imperial Cave, which is the grandest of them all.
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The Imperial Cave is graced with myriads of lovely objects. Darkness brooded over them for ages, as drip by drip and atom by atom they were formed into things that charm and shine in chambers whose walls are "clad in the beauty of a thousand stars." There are underground gullies terrible enough to be the home of Apollyon, with legions of goblins; and strangely radiant elfin palaces where Titania might be supposed to reign, and Robin Goodfellow carry on his frolicsome pranks. In the year 1879, when the cave-keeper (Mr. Wilson) discovered this magnificent series of caverns, he was lowered down a distance of 90 feet through Egyptian darkness. As this mode of access was neither cheerful nor easy, nor free from danger, he determined, if possible, to find a less inconvenient and perilous approach to the cave. After two years of patient investigation he accomplished his heart's desire. The orifice which has been converted into the present entrance was at first, for a distance of 19 feet, only 14 inches by 15 inches, but the curator worked his way through it, caterpillar fashion, with a light in one hand and a hammer in the other, knocking off the rough formation, and widening the aperture from time to time until he made communication free from difficulty. Throughout this splendid cave there are many places where similar efforts, accomplished with equal success, have added largely to the safety and convenience of visitors, who reap the fruits of the heroic work performed by the brave explorer, whose best years have been spent in rendering accessible to the public the marvellous beauties of the Jenolan Caves.
From the accommodation house the way to the Imperial Cave is through the Grand Arch, on the northern side of which, at the eastern end, are two wooden staircases. The first springs from the floor of the arch amidst immense blocks of stone irregularly disposed. It has 21 steps, and a handrail on each side. This terminates at the summit of a pile of limestone rocks, the uppermost of which forms a platform guarded by iron stanchions and a galvanised wire rope. From this platform there is another flight of 21 steps to the portico of the cave—a plain archway, the floor of which is 50 feet higher than the floor of the cave-house. The entrance is guarded by a light iron gate.
About 35 yards from the entrance to the Imperial Cave, northward, and thence about 30 yards east, is "The Wool Shed." The approach to it is narrow and low. In some places it has been formed by blasting, and in others by excavation through a red, sandy substance underneath the limestone. It widens as the Wool Shed is approached. In the floor is a hole going down to the former entrance to the cave, now closed by a stone wall. The Wool Shed is about 20 feet wide, 15 feet high, and 70 feet long. The formation over a large part of the walls and roof resembles the fleeces of sheep, hanging about and spreading over the shelving rocks in all directions. There is one pelt which suggests the "Golden Fleece" torn by Jason from the tree trunk in the poison wood guarded by the huge serpent spangled with bronze and gold, and which was soothed to slumber by the magic song of Orpheus. The surroundings are as strange as those of the lonely cave where dwelt Cheiron the Centaur, who taught the leader of the Argonauts "to wrestle and to box, and to hunt, and to play upon the harp." But perhaps, after all, it may be only an indifferent limestone representation of afellmongering establishment. The woolly skins and scraps are mirrored on the retina. The impressions produced by the sense of vision depend not upon the optic nerve, but upon the imagination. Simply as a spectacle, however, the Wool Shed is curious and entertaining. The blocks of stone near to the base are for the most part plain, and the floor is broken and rugged.
Descending 12 steps, and passing through a tunnel five feet six inches by two feet, the visitor stands at the junction of the right and the left hand branches of the cave. Here formerly the passage was only 14 inches by 15 inches. The larger opening was made by blasting, and the material blown from the solid rock has been packed away in recesses at the side of the hall, which, at the junction of the two branches, widens out considerably, but does not present any specially interesting features. The right hand branch runs north-west, and the left hand branch runs south-west. Taking the south-west branch first, after travelling about 10 yards the visitor comes to "The Gravel Pits," which he reaches by ascending a mound with 13 steps. There are two pits of gravel. One of them is about 12 feet deep and the other about 15 feet. In the rocks overhead are bones distinctly visible, owing to the earthy matter having fallen away from them. Some of these bones are large. There are shelving rocks about six feet from the floor. The sides of one of the Gravel Pits are oblique, but the other pit, which is railed off, is round and perpendicular. It could hardly have been more symmetrical had it been made by a professional well-sinker. This spot, although perhaps uninteresting to a mere sight-seer, cannot fail to attract the attention of geologists. Ascending two flights of stairs with 14 steps each, the excursionist attains a height of about 40 feet above the Gravel Pits in a north-westerly direction. Between the two flights of steps the ground is sloping, and the walls hold a considerable portion of drift, the pebbles of which are large and tinged with oxide of iron. This passage leads to the Margherita Cave, and from it atunnel branches off towards the "Architect's Studio." This is a very pretty vestibule, about 30 yards in length, and bearing south-east. At first it rises several feet by steps, and later on there is a descent of five steps through masses of stalactites, and past a beautiful pillar.