Samuel Cook

“ There are stately and elegant shafts of alabaster from floor to ceiling, coloured stalactites and stalagmites nearly meeting. At every glance the eye is pleased with new and curious forms and rich combinations of colour. Masses of the formation are fringed with contorted threads and pipes, and on the foreground are some curiously-shaped masses like snow, with delicate frost work and projections like frosted hairs all over their surface. These are for the most part opaque, but the predominant features are crystal. ”

“ The mound previously mentioned rests upon another of larger size, of equally graceful contour, and besprent with brilliants which sparkle like immense diamonds. To the right is a cascade of formation which has trickled and solidified from rock to rock and from ledge to ledge in graceful curves from the roof to the floor.
Those who have seen water arrested by congelation on an extensive weir, and rendered opaque by hoar, can form a tolerably correct idea of the kind of beauty here represented in stone. ”

“ On turning the light of the magnesium lamp up the river, its rocky ledges are seen to be ornamented with stalactites and formation perfectly mirrored in the water, which is about 600 feet from the surface, and about 50 below the level of the Cave House in the centre of the valley. Never had river more romantic barriers. Human imagination could not conceive a freak of nature more wildly grand or mysteriously beautiful. There are large ornamented pillars near delicately-tinted formation, drooping from overhanging rocks, like pensile boughs of weeping willow. ”

“ Words are too poor to express the feelings of admiration and awe which are experienced by those who wander through the marvellous subterranean galleries embellished with myriads of graceful and fantastic forms of purest white alternating with rich colour and delicate tints and shades. Of all the caves in New South Wales those at Jenolan are the most beautiful, and well-travelled men admit that they are unrivalled in any other part of the world. ”

“ Bower. To reach the Lucinda Cave from the junction, the visitor passes over a level floor, like cement, about 12 feet in length. This cave is remarkable for its scenic grandeur. The spectator stands in mute admiration, and gazes upon the magnificent sight like one who is spellbound. The beauty is Brobdignagian in its proportions. The figures are all colossal. There are immense stalactites and stalagmites of every hue. An enormous mass of formation droops from the ceiling to the summit of a stalagmitic mound upon which it rests. ”

“ The approach to the cave is through limestone rocks. The path has a gentle slope, and in some places the walls are besprinkled with a white substance like wool. Near the centre of the passage is a hole in the roof partly lined with formation which sparkles like a starlit sky. A little farther on is a descent of four steps through a passage, the walls of which glitter with great brilliancy.
About 25 yards from the Lucinda Cave, south-south-west, is a magnificent spectacle. The roof is densely crowded with stalactites of every type of beauty. ”

“ At the end of the Lady's Finger Cave is a charming grotto, and, above, the rocks are like fine coral in various shades of red and grey. Inside the grotto are stalagmites thick at the base and with elegant stalactites resting on them. Some are pure white, and others are covered with fine tracery. In front is a perfect stalactite which descends to within an inch of a perfect stalagmite just underneath it, and aptly illustrates the process of their growth. ”

“ Descending five steps, a good sight is obtained of the Grotto Cave. It is 25 feet high in places, and about 10 feet wide, with passages in all directions. It runs south-south-east and north-north-west, and is full of interesting vaults and crypts, over which Nature seems to have cast a mystic spell. For alluring charms, fantastic combinations, and disposition of matter, no comparison can be found between it and the most artistic grottoes built by human hands. One grotto is roofed with delicately white and richly-traced formation, studded with stalactites of rare splendour. ”

“ On leaving-the Carlotta Arch and the bridge, the visitor—mentally gratified, physically tired, and conscious that his perceptive faculties have been somewhat strained—rejoices that the cave-house is conveniently near, so that he can promptly ensconce himself in an easy-chair and meditate upon the charming scenes upon which his eyes have feasted. If he be unusually robust he may economise the return journey by taking a peep at the Elder Cave, which lies just off his homeward course. ”

“ Their massiveness is brought out with great effect. The stalactites and stalagmites which form the organ pipes taper with remarkable grace, and are set off by the shadows in the recesses which vary from twilight grey to the darkness of Erebus. Over all are ponderous masses of blue limestone, with immense convexities filled with perpetual gloom. The rocks leading to the caves, the upper part of which is smooth as glass, owe their polish to their long use by wallabies as a track to and from their favourite haunts. ”

“ 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 behind the new western suburbs with their elegant villas, stately mansions, and well-kept gardens, the traveller arrives at Parramatta with its quaint old church, its fine domain with sturdy English oaks of magnificent growth, its glimpses of river, its old King's School, and its many evidences of change from the old to the new.
From Parramatta (which is but 14 miles from Sydney) , to Penrith, there are farms, and dark-leaved orange groves sweet-scented and laden with golden fruit; villages and townships and little homesteads where peace and contentment seem to reign ”

“ 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. ”

“ One of the most noble is about four feet in diameter at the base, and from 12 to 14 feet high, covered with curiously-shaped ornamentation, and having minute stalactites projecting from the sides. All about it are nodules of delicate fretwork, as lovely as the coral of the ancient sea out of which this mountain was made millions of years ago. On the apex is a gracefully-tapered cone; and hard by is a small stalagmite covered with prickles as sharply defined as those of the echinus. All around are limestone pictures of surpassing loveliness. ”

“ This second mass of formation is ornamented with stalactites like frozen jets of water. And so the process is continued again and again, until the points of the lowest stalactites rest on a white mass level with gracefully-curved and coloured rocks, which descend with elegant contours to the bottom of the Bower. The same kind of wonderful fabrication is repeated at the sides of the principal figure. Some of the flooring is as rich and pure as that of the Jewel Casket. It is a marvel of intricate grandeur, and has the advantage of having been well preserved. ”

“ Some of the columns which support the archway have tier upon tier of stalactites, drooping so as to counterfeit water flowing from a fountain, alternating with stalactite formation like boughs of weeping willow. One prominent stalagmite is like the back of a newly-shorn sheep, with shear-marks in the wool. On the western side is a figure like that of an orator in the act of exhortation. The forehead is bald, long white locks are flowing on to the shoulders, one arm is upraised, and the pose gives an idea of earnestness and force. ”

“ The Grand Arch runs east and west, and is about 150 yards in length, 60 feet high, and 70 feet wide at its western end. The eastern end is 80 feet high, and about 200 feet wide. Its proportions and outline are gloomily impressive, and rather awe-inspiring. It is like the portico to some great castle of Giant Despair. The eastern end is a marvel of natural architecture, and the wonder is how so spacious a roof can remain intact under a weight so enormous. The rugged walls are varied by many peculiar rocky formations. ”

“ It seems as though in these subterranean sunless bowers nature had by some subtle process striven to reproduce in stone the fruits and flowers of the sunned surface, clothing them in pure white and sombre grey, and endowing them with charms as sweet and mutely eloquent as the fragrance of the Cestrum nocturnum, or the cold beauty of a night cactus bloom which caresses the moonbeams or wantons in the stellar light. ”

“ The stalactites are not all clear; some of them resemble alabaster, and their shapes are very grotesque. Many are straight as reeds; some are bulbous, and several are combinations of straight pipe and bulb. A few have grown obliquely, but many of the smaller ones are contorted in the most extraordinary manner. On the other side is a formation like a miniature Niagara, with "wild shapes for many a strange comparison," and forms of exquisite beauty. ”

“ The "Gem of the West" is in every respect worthy of its name. It is one of the most attractive caves in the series, and calls forth expressions of delight the moment it is illuminated by a magnesium lamp. It is carefully protected by wire netting, and retains all its pristine loveliness. It occupies but a small space, being seven or eight feet high by about five feet wide. There is a considerable amount of formation on the roof, extending down the wall to the ledge of a rock, the flat under-surface of which forms the roof of the cave. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Thus the old coral reef melts away far inland, and the lime that formed the coatings of its corals is again utilised for the same purpose. What a simple succession of causes and effects, and yet before the circle is completed long ages of time have come and gone; and what a fine example of the balance between the waste and reproduction that takes place in Nature!" And thus the diurnal motion of the earth and its annual journey round the solar circle, as well as the repetitions of history, have impressive geological analogies. ”

“ In the midst are numerous unexplored recesses, which, when the light penetrates, are seen to hold hundreds of fine stalactites, crystal and opaque. The objects of beauty in the Bone Cave retain their colour, because they cannot be handled by that class of visitors who fancy that they can see only with their fingers. On the walls are specimens of delicate fretwork, and on the floor as well as on the top of rocky ledges, stalagmites lavishly ornamented. ”