The Jenolan Caves: An Excursion in Australian WonderlandCook, Samuel
History
The Jenolan Caves: An Excursion in Australian Wonderland
Cook, Samuel
Australia -- Description and travel; Caves; Jenolan Caves (N.S.W.)
The cottage at the caves is not particularly "genteel" in appearance.
The coach-house is large enough to hold almost as many horses as were
kept by Solomon, and as many chariots as were possessed by Pharaoh, and
at one end it is "double;" but there was no thought of Pharaoh, or
Solomon, or Coleridge, or Southey when it was named.
It was not because this huge place was considered big enough to be the
Devil's Coach House that it was called after the Devil, nor because it
was thought to be a suitable place for Satan to "coach" his disciples
in; nor had the person who named it any intention of paying a compliment
to poetic genius. It was called the Devil's Coach House for reasons
similar to those which created the nomenclature of the numerous Devil's
Pinches and Devil's Peaks, Devil's Mills and Devil's Punchbowls, in
various parts of the world. Captain Cook more than a century ago gave
the name of the Devil's Basin to a harbour in Christmas Sound, on the
south side of Tierra del Fuego, because of its gloomy appearance--it
being surrounded by "savage rocks," which deprive it of the rays of the
sun. For similar reasons, perhaps, the name of the Devil's Coach House
was given to this interesting portion of the Jenolan Caves, which are
surrounded by mountains and "savage rocks," and from which the rays of
the sun are excluded, except during a few hours per day. In winter the
sunshine does not glint on to the roof of the cave house till about 10,
and at about 2 in the afternoon the valley is wrapped in shade.
It is 45 or 46 years since James Whalan came suddenly upon the mouth of
this cave, and it so impressed him with its rugged grandeur and
weirdness that when he returned home he reported that he had been to the
end of the world, and had got into the Devil's Coach House. So by that
term it is still called, although it has been since named the Easter
Cave, because of a visit by some distinguished member of the Government
service during Easter, which in New South Wales is now as favourite a
holiday time as it was when kept as a festival in honour of the Goddess
of Light and Spring. For a short period in the afternoon one end of the
cave is flooded with the warm beams of the sun. Then it is at its best,
and, as the enamoured hand of fancy gleans "the treasured pictures of a
thousand scenes," so, after the bright rays have disappeared, and the
cave is seen in the shade or by "the pale moonlight," its beauties
change from hour to hour, like shadows on the mountains or the cloud
glories of an autumn sunset.
CHAPTER V.
THE NIGHT CAVES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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